Bringer of Bad News

 1999 

Artemis Blackmoore was falling asleep at her desk, the quill she had in her hand was slowly slipping out of her grip. Even though it had been over a year since the war ended the workload for the Aurors had not lessened. There were still Death Eaters to catch, people to interrogate, muggles to Obliviate and so much more. Not to forget the never-ending pile of paperwork, when one case closed another one opened. To make matters worse they still had to do nightly rounds around the more notorious places in London, so far this had resulted in the catching of a fair share of lesser Death Eaters on the run but for the most part, none of them had really seen Voldemort so they had no useful information.

She frowned as she felt a feeling of amusement running through her. She opened her eyes to see Orion Silver looking at her with a slight grin on his face from the other side of his desk.

They had met at Hogwarts and went into Auror training together, even though Orion had taken a side path to become a Potion Master they had ended up as partners in the end.

"You would be sleepy too if you had three-night shifts in a row." She huffed a bit when he started to snicker.

"You could take a nap on the sofa you know?"

He pointed to the black leather sofa that stood along one of the walls of the office. It had been a hand-me-down from the previous tenant of the office and seeing as they still fit their desk in there it had stayed. Artemis' desk was on the opposite wall from the sofa and behind her were three big shelves filled with books on seemingly every subject imaginable. She liked knowing a little about everything, it came in handy in the field. As well as saving time in a dangerous situation. On more than one occasion she had managed to figure out a counterspell for something without calling the curse breakers. Her proudest subject, however, was Defence Against the Dark Arts and she had been a teacher for the junior Aurors on the subject when they were in need of extra help.

Behind Orion's desk were three similar shelves but they were filled with potion ingredients and potion vials of all shapes and sizes. The man had become one of the youngest potion masters the Ministry had ever had and therefore in addition to being a field agent, he was an advisor in cases involving potion smuggling. For this purpose, he had a mini potion lab in the corner of the office for simple potion-making and testing on unknown ones. It was those days that Artemis hated the fact they were underground and the windows were just fake.

Usually, they managed to keep their office fairly tidy but these days there were papers and books littered everywhere, all of the Aurors' offices looked like this these days, to be honest.

As Artemis was about to answer her partner a red paper airplane came flying through the hole over the door. The colour meant that it was from the Head Auror, Gawain Robards himself and that usually meant an emergency. Artemis banged her head on her desk in frustration, she swore if this was another of those Full-Blood Madams who 'swore' they had seen a Death Eater in their garden again she was going to kill someone. The plane landed softly on Orion's desk and he quickly opened it. A wave of annoyance washed over her as she looked at him.

"What does he want?"

"A meeting in room 112, right now." They both sighed as they put on their uniform cloaks and left the office on their quest to get to room 112.

~ཐིཋྀ~

Artemis looked around the open office space while they walked and thanked Merlin that she now had her own office. All the trainees and juniors shared this space and it was in utter chaos. The desks were filled with paperwork and paper planes of different colours were flying above their heads, some not even finding places to land so the receiver had to catch them in the air.

She caught the eye of some juniors who looked at them in awe when they passed. They quickly looked back at their own work and she had to smile. It was not that long ago it seemed that she had been sitting at one of those desks and looking at the senior Aurors walking by in their scarlet uniforms.

When she herself became a Senior Auror however she had not liked the scarlet colour in the slightest, it had reminded her of some of the worst parts of her life so in protest had coloured all her uniforms a deep green. After two years the Head Auror had stopped complaining about it and let it go. It had probably helped that her partner and some other colleagues had done the same thing and pointed out that uniform colour, in the end, should not matter. Of course, this made them more recognisable inside the Ministry but it had worked in their favour on more occasions in the field. Criminals had mistaken them for Juniors and let their guard down only to get a surprise when the Senior badge was shown in their faces.

Artemis waved to some of the juniors she recognised from the classes she had taught and laughed when they almost too eagerly waved back. One thing she did not miss was the noise, it was a constant string of sounds no matter what you did. She was sure that if a dragon suddenly started to attack the floor above them they would not hear a thing. 

~ཐིཋྀ~

They had arrived in front of the door to room 112, Orion knocked on the door and a clear "Enter" could be heard from within.

Artemis was surprised to see some other colleagues already present. Cyril Thompson, Septimus Zouch and Zacharias Zabini were sitting in a chair each and smiled at them when they entered.

"Hey! It's the power pair, took your time heh?" Zacharias grinned at them with humour in his eyes while he stood up and patted Orion on the back then patted Artemis on the head. She huffed and slapped him softly on the shoulder, the dark man only laughed in return. Septimus also stood and settled for a handshake from each of them.

"Greetings, once again, to the both of you." Artemis nodded in return and then got taken by surprise by Cyril who gave her a soft kiss on the cheek.

A sudden wave of jealousy flooded her that almost made her stagger. She looked harshly at her partner who looked away innocently.

"Still bonded I guess?" Cyril smirked at them both while Orion rolled his eyes at him. 

"Yes, so back off Thompson."

There was no malice in their voices, only playful banter. But the feelings that Artemis felt were real enough and she looked between them with a motherly look.

"Behave, hm?" They both nodded at her.

It had been a while since they all had been together like this. While Orion and herself were specialists in direct fieldwork the other three had each their own special places.

Cyril was one of the best infiltrators in the Ministry, every time they needed to send an agent into a criminal ring he was the one they sent. This made him have multiple names and faces but the one sitting before them today was the real thing. The auburn hair and blue eyes were a rare sight on the man these days.

Septimus, on the other hand, had the biggest information network on this side of the country, he had informants stationed in all of the bigger cities around Europe and his main job was to track down some of the bigger Death Eaters that they were missing. His information was triple-checked even before it even reached his own ears so it was usually reliable if they got a tip from one of his agents. His blond hair had darkened a little since his school days Artemis noted, but his eyes were still the same clear blue sky colour that they had always been.

Lastly, there was Zacharias Zabini. He had followed the same path as Artemis and Orion but had found curse-breaking to be his calling and had made quite the name for himself. It was him that Artemis saw the most of the three and they had been partnered on multiple cases. The dark man might be a humorous idiot in the office but out on the job, he was the most serious and professional agent Artemis knew of. He never left anyone behind and did his job after his own rhythm, this also gave him a bad reputation for not always following orders only being beaten by Artemis herself. She often wondered if the hair loss problem their boss had had something to do with the two of them breaking so many rules.

When she took a look at her own partner he had not changed a lot either since Hogwarts. His hair was still the blondest she had ever seen and his eyes were still the colour of blue ice. He turned to look at her with a puzzled look then.

"What is it?" She smiled at him.

"Nothing, I'm just thinking that none of us has changed much since Hogwarts." Zacharias raised an eyebrow at her.

"Speak for yourself, miss! Do you know what a hairdresser is? When was the last time you cut your hair?" Artemis thought for a moment and realised it had been a while since she had cut it. Her brown hair reached her tailbone at this point but it didn't really bother her and she just magically put it up if she needed. She shrugged as a response and Zacharias laughed. Cyril gave her a smile.

"Those eyes of yours are still the same though, a beautiful brown with specks of gold. It's reassuring to see." The rest of the men nodded and they all grew quiet.

The Head Auror walked into the room and told everyone to sit down. They quickly took a seat and waited patiently for what their boss wanted. For him to summon all of them together like this could not be a good thing. The man in front of them looked incredibly uncomfortable when he looked over at Artemis. He coughed and took a sip of the coffee cup that he had brought.

"Right, you are probably wondering why all of you are here today." They all nodded in unison. Robards coughed again before continuing.

"Well, it so happens that Headmistress McGonagall has requested your aid with regard to the safety of her students at Hogwarts"

Septimus raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Sir, I beg your pardon, but there are at least two dozen agents already deployed out in that area. May I ask why she requires our assistance, specifically?" The others waited for their boss to answer.

Robards moved around in his chair like it was the last place he wanted to be.

"It seems like one of her students has received letters of threats on his life by other students and she is worried about how this will affect the others." Orion spoke up then.

"If this is about Harry Potter Sir that is already covered is it not? Frankly, the boy can take care of himself if you ask me." Robards nodded in agreement.

"Yes, but this is not about him Auror Silver. This is about Draco Malfoy." The group looked at their boss in surprise.

Artemis could feel her anger rise, this seemed all too familiar. "But if this is about students bothering other students shouldn't the teachers do something? Besides the boy is on probation, he doesn't even have a wand most of the time."

Orion put a hand on her knee carefully and she calmed slightly.

"This is where you come in Auror Blackmoore. Apparently, you made quite an impression on the boy during his trials and he asked for you specifically to be his bodyguard. The Headmistress for some reason insisted that you all come with Auror Blackmoore on this mission." Robards said.

Artemis didn't know what she had done to give the boy such a good impression of herself. Back then they were stretching the Auror corp thinner than ever and everyone had to do everything no matter rank. You got a job, you did it. The brunette had been chosen to take care of the young Malfoy before his trial. The poor boy had been like a scared little animal and had barely talked at all the first day. But somehow she had gotten him to open up to her, but according to her, she hadn't really done anything special. Maybe that was the whole point. She had treated him like a person and that was enough. During the trial, she had been standing right behind him the entire time like a shadow and had requested breaks when she saw that he could not take it anymore. It was one of the longest trials she had ever been a part of. In the end, the boy had gotten away with yearly probation that included him finishing school and that he stayed out of trouble. His wand was also not to be used unless it was for teaching purposes. The boy had more tracking charms on him than a dragon she assumed. 

"So we are taking turns to travel back and forth then?" Zacharias asked. Robards looked even more uncomfortable now as he peeked a look at Artemis.

"No, Auror Zabini. You are all going to be living in the castle until the school year is over."

The room erupted in shouts and questions. They had too much work to just put on hold for something like this, surely he could send another group to do this?

Artemis sat in her chair, her thoughts were swimming. She was going to go back to that hellish castle that she had detested the whole time she had been there. Only thinking about it made her sick to the stomach. Then what Robards had said earlier registered in her head.

 "The Headmistress for some reason insisted that you all come with Auror Blackmoore on this mission." The Headmistress didn't even trust her enough to send her in alone. She was still stuck in the past and by the looks of it not willing to change. Her own anger erupted from her faster than it had done in a long time. The female Auror slammed her hands on the table and stood up with such force that her chair fell backwards on the ground quieting the men arguing. They all looked at her. She looked at her boss with flashing eyes.

"I refuse."

She was already down the hall before the men had a chance to react. Her heels clicked loudly on the stone floor as she walked in a fast space back to her office. The open space seemed to have quieted down somewhat when she came barging out of the room and hundreds of eyes were following her. She paid them no mind as she tore open the door to her office and slammed it shut behind her. 

~ཐིཋྀ~

Artemis didn't even try to stop herself from destroying the office. The magic went wild inside the room, furniture, books, papers, potion bottles, everything was flying in every direction and crashing into the walls and floors. She let out a scream of anger that she had been holding in. No one on the outside would know what was going on thanks to the strong wards that were on the door which she was thankful for. She stood at the centre of the room and threw some hexes at the walls and threw some papers around for good measure. Orion's chair was floating dangerously in the air and she sent it towards the door at full speed but stopped it at the last second when the door opened.

The blond Auror looked at the office with a frown and sighed. Everything was now frozen in the air and he moved the chair out of the way so that he could step in and close the door.

"Don't you dare try to convince me of going, I won't stop that chair a second time." Her voice was filled with malice and it scared even her. It was a long time since she had felt like this, like a demon.

Orion stood still and looked at her. He said nothing because he didn't have to. She could feel that he was sending calming emotions to her through the bond. But somehow it made her feel even angrier. Did he not understand why she was feeling this way? Had he forgotten? She screamed again, louder this time. More potion bottles exploded behind her and Orion's desk moved dangerously. Orion now knew the seriousness of the situation and walked over to her and touched her gently on the cheek.

"Show me your eyes." His voice was soft but firm.

It was a command, not a request. He didn't use the power he had over her often but at times like these when the bond was not enough he had to use the other option. She had no choice but to open her eyes to him. His frown deepened. He did not like what he was seeing. Artemis could feel the worry and slight anger pulsing of the man.

"You need to calm down. Now. Or I won't hesitate to knock you out."

She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. This time she let the calming emotions wash over her and she relaxed.

Orion had cupped her face in his hands and he was stroking both her cheeks with his thumbs, similar to what she had done to him many years ago. When she opened her eyes again the man nodded and let out the breath he was holding.

"Now please fix the office." The male Auror crossed his arms and tapped his foot on the floor.

She waved her hand and everything in the room started to get back to its original place. Books placed themselves where they belonged, potion bottles put themselves back together again and the furniture hopped back into place. When a minute had passed the room was back to its original state.

"I'm sorry." Artemis sat down with a sigh on the sofa and looked up at her partner. He just shook his head and opened the door. The rest of their group walked in. Cyril sat down next to Artemis and patted her shoulder.

"That bad?" She nodded and looked apologetic at them all.

"What did Robards say?" Septimus sat down next to her on the other side.

"We have been granted an office at the school, with our own living quarters connected to it, so we will be able to continue our assignments, respectively, during our stay. For our convenience, the Auror Department has established a connection to the floo network that makes it so travel between London and Hogwarts shall prove effortless. Your main objective, Artemis, will be the safekeeping of Mr Malfoy, while the rest of us will be tasked with tracking, observing, and the potential neutralization of the students responsible for the threatening letters. A warrant granting us total access to the school grounds has already been filed, granted, as well as notarized, of course, as Mr Robards was quite precise in his demands to the Headmistress. We have until tomorrow to decide." Everyone looked at her expectantly. Honestly, the witch was lost on what do to.

The thought of going back to that place terrified her. At the same time when she thought about the young Malfoy maybe being in the same shoes, she had been all those years ago making her feel angry again.

"We should call it a day and think it over. Let's meet here at eight am tomorrow morning and go over what we decide. Majority wins. Agreed?" Everyone looked at Orion and nodded.

"This is like being at school again! The King giving us orders." Zacharias started to laugh loudly. Somehow it shifted the mood in the room enough so that it felt lighter, the rest joined in on the laughter. One by one they said their goodbyes and left the office. Artemis and Orion were soon standing in the elevator up to the exit. The blonde looked down at her.

"Want to walk home?" She nodded, the fresh air would be good for them both.

Sometimes she wished that the Aurors weren't placed so far underground. It made her feel like a trapped animal, more so than usual anyhow.

As the elevator reached the Atrium the sounds of people hastily walking to and from their destinations met them. The clock was almost five but there were still people running around trying to finish their last duties before going home. Most people just walked by them without a second thought but a few looked at them puzzled. Newly hired she assumed. They hadn't seen the coloured uniforms before, not that she could blame them. There were only five Aurors in the entire force that wore the colour after all.

She sighed loudly when she saw who was doing the controls at the exit that evening. Jessica Finch, the girl was sweet enough but for some reason, she talked to Artemis like they were the best of friends. Besides, the girl loved gossip and would talk nonstop about who was dating whom or whose wife was cheating on her husband with the maid. One thing that Artemis figured out early was that the girl had a huge crush on Orion, which she used to her advantage. She smirked at Orion and pushed him in front of her in the line. The man then registered who sat behind the counter and she could feel the annoyance radiating off the man. She had to bite her lip to keep the laugh from escaping. Ever vigilant Jessica noticed Orion immediately and started waving like mad at him.

"Oh my! Auror Silver! You are going home early today. What is the occasion?" The girl gasped.

"Do you have a date?! Oh, you have to tell me! Who is the lucky one?!" Artemis peeked at Orion in the corner of her eye and had she not known the man for ten years she would have thought that he was being his polite self. But underneath that perfect Slytherin King mask of his, there was a face that could scare away a dragon.

"Managed to finish work faster today. That is all Miss Finch." His smile was almost creepy Artemis thought as she quietly snuck past him and started walking towards the next elevator. The Auror had no energy to deal with Jessica at the moment. The woman was so preoccupied with drooling over Orion's face that she would not have noticed even if Voldemort himself walked in.

Artemis leaned against the wall next to the elevator while she waited for Orion to be let loose from the gossip machine. She mumbled a Notice-Me-Not charm so people would stop staring. The colour of the uniform was not the only thing that had made the brunette somewhat well-known inside the Ministry. Of course, she had a lot of successful big cases on her resume but success is not what people remember. It's the failures. There had been a few times when she could not keep herself under control and had paid a big price for it. Officially the people were killed before the female Auror had gotten to the scene, unofficially the story was quite different.

It was years ago now, but her statement had not changed. They deserved what they got and she did not regret it.

She smirked when she saw her partner's face as he walked at a fast pace towards the elevator. If a thunderstorm had a face it would be his at the moment. He stopped in front of the elevator, pressed the button and mumbled to himself.

"Could not even wait, damn woman". Even though the bond they shared made sure that he always knew where she was it was not accurate when it came to levels. Since the Ministry was ten levels he would know that she was inside the Ministry but not which level. All the magic from the Ministry itself also disturbed the connection somewhat so it was less accurate than usual. Artemis herself could pin-point him down more accurately and would know which floor and the general direction of where he was on it. It annoyed him to no end. He probably thought that she had taken the elevator up since he could feel that she was still inside the Ministry, but could not see her.

She quickly followed him inside when the elevator opened and stood silently in one corner as they began the minute-long journey to the top. The man in front of her dropped the stone mask he wore in front of people and rubbed his eyes.

"Why the bloody fucking hell does that damn hag need us. Now she will find out, what the bloody fuck do I do. She's going to kill me." Artemis looked at her partner confused. She had never seen him acting this desperate before.

"Fuck… Artemis forgive me." Before she could let herself be known the elevator door opened and the sight of London's streets came into view. Orion straightened his back, looked around and started walking down the street. Artemis quickly Apparated to the alley right up the street, dropped the charm on herself and walked out just at the moment he was about to pass her.

"Took you long enough. Did she try to eat you?" He jumped slightly and put a hand mockingly over his heart.

"Don't do that. Want to give me a heart attack?" She rolled her eyes at him and continued walking. The brunette decided then that she was going to pretend not to know anything for the moment.

Their apartment was a thirty-minute walk from the Ministry phone box, not that the distance really mattered most days since they usually flooed or Apparated. But they got lucky when they found the apartment. The previous tenant was selling it cheap because he was certain that it was haunted. He was right of course, it was a mean old man who had insisted that it was his apartment and threatened to make their lives hell if they did not leave. One look at Artemis changed his mind quickly and he left to haunt some other apartment. Not worth haunting something scarier than yourself.

It had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a medium-sized kitchen and a decent-sized living room. It needed some fixing here and there but it had not taken long before they had gotten it the way they wanted. Orion had also managed to spell in space for his potion lab and a library for Artemis. This was of course hidden just in case they got muggles at the door. The walls were coloured a soft grey with dark wood flooring and they had put in more modern furniture but still kept the cosy feeling. The colour scheme was soft tones of blues and greys, with some sprinkles of green. Two rooms that stood out from the rest were their bedrooms.

Artemis' bedroom had a clean black wall as she used it to sort out case notes. If she was in the middle of a case there would be notes all over the wall and because of the nature of the notes her room was heavily warded. The rest of the walls were a dark grey. Other than that there were books everywhere, the three shelves she had were filled to the breaking point and the books had slowly started to spread across the floor. But it was either one more bookshelf or no bed and she had been in favour of keeping the bed.

Orion's room was the opposite of hers. His walls were coloured a light blue and since he had managed to fit in a potion lab it was free of ingredients and the usual clutter that followed. A simple reading desk was placed alongside one wall with the bed on the opposite one. He had also covered the floor with a beige soft carpet, the man might have lived in the dungeons at school but that did not mean he liked having cold feet in the morning.

The Aurors locked themselves inside and Artemis threw herself on the sofa with a groan. Orion clicked his tongue at her.

"At least take off your uniform first." She groaned louder in protest but got up to go to her bedroom to change. The brunette quickly changed into some more comfortable clothes and went to the kitchen where she could hear Orion shuffling around. The blond turned around and looked at her.

"Planning to heat up leftovers from yesterday, ok?" Artemis wasn't really hungry but just nodded. He was going to force it down her throat no matter what she said anyway. She threw herself on the sofa again and stretched. It was calming to listen to her partner moving around in the kitchen and her eyes started to droop slowly.

~𓅃~

Orion frowned when he called Artemis for the third time but still didn't get an answer. He peeked out of the kitchen and could see one of her arms lying over the end of the sofa. The blond sighed and put the plate of food on the dining table, placing a stasis charm on it as he went. He walked over to the sofa and looked over the back of it. The female Auror was in a deep sleep from the looks of it. This was one of the moments he treasured these days when her face looked peaceful. It had been a close call at the office today, her eyes had almost reverted back to the solid gold they used to be when the demon took completely over. He feared the day when he had to tell her the secret he had been keeping for over a year now.

The blond stroked her cheek carefully and brushed some hair out of her face. He grinned, she really did need a haircut. Orion took the blanket from the end of the sofa and placed it over her and went over to the dining table to eat his dinner.

He had told the others that the majority votes won, but they all knew that it was a lie. Artemis was the one that decided what they were going to do. If she pulled out they all would. He stabbed his food with unnecessary force. McGonagall could go to hell for all he cared. During school, he had not really cared about her in any form, negative or positive. But that all changed after he had met Artemis. He then saw what kind of monsters people could be for their own winnings.

Suddenly the lights started to flicker around him and he froze. He carefully got out of his chair and walked over to Artemis on the sofa. Her face was now twisted into a scared expression as she tossed around in the small space. The blond knew that waking her now could be dangerous. He had learned that the hard way. He quickly went into his potion lab and got the most foul-smelling one he had and went back into the living room. He hovered the bottle close to her nose as he could get it and within seconds she was on the floor coughing and gagging.

"I… I hate you…" She coughed out eventually, tears streaming down her face. Orion just rolled his eyes.

"I guess I could let you continue with the nightmare then so that you could break all the lights in the apartment. Again." He didn't mean to sound so cold as he did and sent apologetic feelings through the bond as he walked over to her. Artemis got up from the floor on unsteady feet.

"I think I'll just go to bed." For once he didn't argue. He didn't need to ask what the nightmare had been about after what happened today and watched her go to her room. The man looked over to the dining room table at the plates of food and sighed. Tomorrow was going to be hell.