Harry had been discussing a side case, as almost all their resources had been moved to the Jones case, when he'd heard a uproar come from the other end of the Auror office. He looked at Natalie, whose eyes were wide, and turned, rushing out into the skinny hallway between the cubbys. He had his wand drawn and could feel Natalie at his back when he entered the opening at the front of the offices.

Everyone was gathered around someone and talking at the same time. No one looked like they were in danger. Harry slowly put his wand back up his sleeve, grinning when he saw Natalie do the same.

Hestia wove through the crush, thanking everyone who told her that they were glad she was back and had not believed "it" for a second - even the people she suspected were lying out of their arseholes. Since Kingsley was the acting Head of the MLE currently, Hestia had her office back. Her friend had not touched a thing - not even the flowers she had on stasis charm behind her desk. She shook a few hands, answered a question or two. Well, the one pertinent to the job, not her incarceration. She didn't feel her time in the holding tank was anyone's business.

Hestia stopped in her office doorway. "Potter. McDonald. My office. Now," she barked.

She wasn't upset with either of them. Quite the opposite in fact, but if people thought she was going to be less of a hard-arse, they were in for a rude awakening. There would be no coddling in the trainee program. Not right now. There was a change in the wind, and not the kind that Mary Poppins liked to ride in on.

"Potter, bring all your notes on the M Jones case," Hestia added.

That caused a bit of a lull in any sort of conversation.

Harry nodded, not even pausing when people started to ask what case. It wasn't their business, they weren't assigned to it, and he really didn't want any extra people on this that he didn't need. And, quite honestly, there wasn't a trainee, barring Natalie, that he trusted. He ran to his office, grabbing the file off his desk. It'd been there for a week, him just staring at it, willing to be alerted that she'd moved, or gone someplace they'd been watching. Nothing. He was frustrated, and having Hestia on it would only lead to good things.

He pushed through the crowd, ignoring someone who'd asked what case he was on. He probably should have yelled at them to be more professional. You didn't ask about cases. Period. However, he really didn't want to waste his time. He entered Hestia's office and shut the door, noting that Natalie was standing stock still in front of Hestia's desk. At attention.

"Here's the case."

Natalie wanted to dance. She loved being in the thick of things. They were going to catch Megan Jones. She was having an extraordinarily good week despite not having heard from Dean in a bit. She wished Harry would let her talk about personal things. She was bursting. Not about Dean, because Harry would never want to talk about boys, but there were other things.

"Anything new, Bitsy Boots?"

Natalie grinned widely and reached into her pocket. She'd gotten the memo this morning.

"Someone picked up a new class."

"I did," Natalie said excitedly, feeling quite proud. "But I don't know if I can do it."

"Sure you can." Hestia looked at Harry. "Tell her she can."

"She can do anything she wants." Harry turned from Hestia to look at Natalie. "Exactly what class are you taking?" He felt a little guilty. The only thing he'd talked to her about in the past two weeks was work. Work and cases. He was still a little sore over everything that had happened. The body. The yelling afterwards. She was taking a new class and he had no idea what it was.

Natalie looked at Harry. She was always bursting to tell him things, but he didn't want to know about her. He'd made that quite clear. It sort of irritated her that he was only asking because Auror Jones was here.

"It seems someone with the Animagi Registrar's Office thinks I'm a good candidate for their latest study of the process. I don't have to do it. I just got the memo this morning. I... I haven't decided. Though I think I'm curious. Isn't it usually something close to what your patronus is or do I get to pick? Because I can't decide between something big and dangerous... like tiger or inconspicuous... like a bird or a cat or a dog. Though with my luck I'd end up a terrier."

The Animagi Registrar was interested in Natalie? Harry couldn't help but think it fit rather well. She was a studier. She studied, and from Harry knew about the process, it took a lot of studying. He was still at a loss as to how his dad, Sirius, and Pettigrew had been able to accomplish it during school. He couldn't even imagine trying it. Occlumency had been hard enough.

"You should do it. It'd be beneficial to being an Auror, that's for sure."

"Can't hurt," Natalie said with a shrug. "Only... oh my God, what if it does?"

Hestia chuckled. With the exception of Malcolm Baddock, Natalie had the quickest mind of all the trainees in Hestia's opinion. Baddock just wasn't as intuitive as Natalie. To her, McDonald was more like Potter. She knew her stuff, but improvised when needed. Tonks was like that as well.

"Anything else?" Hestia asked. "I must get caught up. I miss our chats. I miss chatting with all the trainees. I feel like I have no idea what's going on."

"I met Daddy for lunch at the Sticks yester after I went to... run an errand, and the owner, the big Scot guy, he had a bit of a situation and someone wasn't there or something, and I might have helped, so he said he'd give me wandless sparring lessons for free. I'm to specifically learn how to headbutt and unman fellows. He seemed really excited about it. At least I think that's what he said. Accent got all thick and stuff."

Hestia laughed again and the glanced at Harry. She could not exactly read his expression. "All right then. Excellent. Anything for you to clear out or comment upon before we move on to less happy matters, Harry? I heard you got more write in votes than Kingsley did for the election."

Harry snorted. "He can have at the Minister of Magic job if he'd like it. I'm not the political type. I'd much rather stay where I am, thank you." He was interested to see who in their right mind would vote him as Minister of Magic. He wasn't built for being in charge of people like that. Teaching? Sure, in the right situation. "I'd actually like to talk about the less happy matters. I'm going to Ernie's funeral tomorrow. Do you think Megan would have the gall to show? Bask in her crime?"

Hestia flipped open the file. "I'm planning on going myself. At least speaking to his parents. He was a good kid. I liked him. He was good at his job. That I can definitely appreciate. As for Miss Jones, unfortunately she's very smart. Not extraordinarily brilliant, mind, so we do have a chance. But who knows. She went to the Hopkins funeral, so she might show here. As Ernie's friend, ti would be expected, and yes, she might like to bask, so keep your eyes open." She had been reading through the file. "She was really sleeping with Dawlish? Seriously? I'm trying to picture that, and I really think I should just stop."

Grimacing, Harry nodded. "Yes. She killed him and Hopkirk and made it look like a murder-suicide. She's connected to almost every murder that's happened in the last couple of months. Literally connected. She's sloppy. I have no idea how we didn't see the pattern before."

Hestia spread scene photos across her desk and looked at them in silence.

"Because there is no method to the madness here until you really start looking for it. We weren't looking for the killer in her because we did not think it possible. Her outward facade kept her above suspicion for a time. It'd be brilliant if it was not so very disturbing. If she did not have a connection with each person here, we'd likely never have connected them. There was no usable evidence at the scenes." Hestia stopped to think some more. "A hanging, a knifing, a poisoning, and a death curse. I can almost appreciate the ingenuity. She has not been back to my home or to her parents'. Hmmm."

It was silent as she moved the crime scene photos this way and that for a few minutes, not quite believing her niece had done these things.

"Do we have anything else especially gruesome that's not solved?"

Natalie blinked. "Do you really suspect she-"

"Wayne Hopkins was her study partner in school. She went to his soddin' funeral, bold as damned brass. There's no pattern to these others. Might as well have a look-see."

"Really only three others not ruled natural causes," Natalie said. "The Alicia Spinnet case. She was found suffocated with that dead muggle. No one's making any headway there. Um..." Natalie pulled some notes out. "There was this Theodore Nott thing, but he was mugged, and they caught the muggle who did it. Bloke confessed and everything. Um, Christie Shaw in Nem's Nook, but she survived her attack. Just died of the injuries sustained during it later. Came to once and said it was a bloke that did her that way though, but I suspect it bears more looking into. Anyone who'd rough up a little old lady like that, something's wrong with them."

"And people who saw Alicia that night said she left with a man as well. No mention on women in the cases at all." Harry frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. He had tried not to give much thought to Alicia's case. She'd sent him a gift when he made Auror, and he hadn't really thought about owling her afterward. And now he couldn't.

"Why would she have anything to do with those cases?"

"If you didn't know she knew the other four, would you think them connected? I'm not saying she had anything to do with it, Potter. Just don't rule it out for now. We can't even be certain if she has anything to do with these. Not until she's questioned," Hestia said. "And I would like nothing better than if it were a happy coincidence, but my gut tells me it is not. She used the Imperius on me. Her own aunt. I can't seem to find where the memory is buried in my head, but I suspect she had something to do with Scrimgeour's death, but we'll never know unless we find her. So any leads there at all? I'd hate to start posting wanted posters before we were certain of what she had done. Even if it's only one that reads wanted for questioning, I don't want..."

Hestia despised her lack of killer instinct here. The little bitch had tortured her, removed part of her memory. Yet, she still could not exactly go after her as she should. It was good Potter and McDonald seemed to be thinking hard on this.

"I won't rule it out," Harry said. He had no idea what motivation Megan would have had to kill Alicia and some poor woman in Nem's Nook, but Harry didn't exactly consider her sane anymore.

He turned to look at Natalie. "You keep notes on open cases? In your pocket? At all times?"

"And what if I do?" Natalie asked, a bit defensive. "That seems kind of personal, Potter. Sure you want to know?"

Hestia clamped her teeth together. She didn't want to laugh. This is what she missed the most. Watching the snipping that often went along from working in the trenches as they did as Aurors.

"I can always step outside if you two need to hash something out," Hestia said with a wry smile. "I feel you're both doing fine work here. She'll turn up, and I think... hope... before anyone else dies. There are only so many places she could be. Her accounts at Gringotts have been frozen, and she did not have money anywhere else, so unless she has help, she'll be found soon. We'll have our answers then. Potter, I'd like to look over these case files a bit more. I'll return them to you before the end of the day... if that's agreeable."

Natalie knew a dismissal when she heard one. She nodded once and made for the door. Perhaps she could get lost before Harry wanted to talk. She was not in the mood to talk work with him any longer. She had other things on her mind today.

Harry watched Natalie leave and turned back to Hestia with a sigh. "See what I mean? We're not working well together, Hestia. She doesn't respect me anymore, not since Wayne's body. I'm not good with-" He shook his head, looking down at the ground. "I'm not a good supervisor or mentor. I'm just not. I can teach her things, sure, but I can't work with her well."

"Have you not been paying attention, Harry?" Hestia smiled. "Have you not figured out how she works yet? Unless she's putting on an excellent charade, she likes me a bit. Why? Because I take a few minutes to talk about things not work. Yes, unprofessional. Maybe not your style, but I am not reassigning her. She's a little you... only fussier. Deal with her. Figure it out. I have faith in you. Besides, she'd eat anyone else I put her with alive. She's going to learn the most from you, and the only other person who seemed to have no problems with you as their mentor was Romilda Vane, but for other reasons, I suspect. You could be truly ingenious and just ask her what's wrong. Unless you really don't care."

Hestia went to shifting through the files and reading, wondering what Harry would do, but suspecting she knew.

Harry was sorely wishing he'd been assigned a boy for a trainee. Boys didn't need to talk about feelings, and Harry had never been one to talk about those in the first place. He supposed he did care about what Natalie was doing outside of work, but he'd thought it'd be rather arrogant to presume she'd tell him. Yes, she was dating a mate of his, but Harry really didn't want to know what her and Dean got up to in their free time. He didn't think he needed to visualize his trainee that way.

He sighed, heading towards the door. "End of the day is fine for the reports. You can just put them on my desk." He stopped at the doorway, turning back to look at her. "If she cries on me, I'm blaming you."

"People want to feel they are in something with you when you work together, Harry," Hestia said without looking up, taking out a quill and parchment to make her own notes. "Something as little as knowing her father's name and asking after his health every so often can make all the difference. I'm not saying you must paint her toenails and get all the juicy details of her date last weekend, but having a small inkling of what's going on with her outside of the Ministry might better assist you in dealing with her. Just advice, not an order." Hestia looked up then. "By the way, how are Ron and Hermione these days?"

"I'll let you know when I find out," Harry said, shaking his head as he left her office. He hadn't talked to Hermione since New Years Day, and he really hadn't talked to Ron at all. This case, getting justice for Ernie and the Minister, Wayne and Dawlish, was taking precedence. It's what it took, he decided. Constant vigilance and all that rot. He wasn't going to stop Megan without sacrificing his time, and it was worth it.

Just like what he was about to do was worth it, even if it was going to be painful. He stopped at Natalie's cubby, leaning awkwardly in the doorway. "So... what's your favorite animal?"

Natalie turned in her chair and gave him an odd look. "Dean."

Harry frowned. "Well, you can't very well turn into him when you learn how to be an animagus, now can you?"

Natalie turned serious after that. "I can't decide if I'd like to blend or be able to inflict damage if needs be. I guess it would depend on that. Though my patronus is a vixen. Did you know? Female fox. They're quite vicious, but small."

"Much like yourself." He crossed his arms over his shoulder. "You know, my dad was an animagus." Hestia had said something about asking her about her family, but Harry hoped telling her a little about his might work just as well. "So was my godfather."

"Really?" Natalie said, gesturing to the other seat crammed into her cubby. "I think I heard something of it about your godfather, but I didn't know that about your da."

"He was a stag." Harry took the seat she'd offered. "Sirius was a big black dog. They learned how to do it in school. I thought about doing it, but I don't know if I could." He sat back. "You, however, could pull it off. You're book smart. That's a good thing to be, Natalie." Merlin, he was talking about work things again. He needed to move it away from work things. "Does Dean know about you wanting to become an animagus?"

All right. He was trying. Likely at Hestia's urging. "Does this mean Auror Jones is not allowing you to remove yourself as my mentor, and you think actually knowing a bit about me might benefit you? Make me less cranky?"

That was uncharitable, and he was trying. When he went to reply, Natalie held up a hand.

"No. Dean doesn't know. We don't usually talk about my work, but I will tell him. I just found out today though. I'm sure by the end of the day everyone around here will know, but so far it's just you and Hestia."

Harry had been about to decide that Hestia had no idea what she'd been talking about and that this was a lost cause when she'd stopped him. "Why don't you talk about work?"

"Do... do you really want to know?" Natalie blushed a bit. "We're usually too busy making out and getting caught by my da to talk about here."

Harry pointedly looked at a spot over her head when her cheeks started to turn pink. He'd started to recite the ten steps to proper broom care in his head, waiting for her lips to stop moving. Luckily, he'd missed most of what she'd said. "Well, that does happen from time to time." Unsure whether or not that actually went along with what she'd said, he nodded. "Well, I'm sure he'll be thrilled."

"That's the weird part. He is. Terribly happy. You'd think a father wouldn't want to see his daughter... like that. It's normal? Really? Oh Harry, you can't know what a relief it is to be able to talk about this with someone. I tried to speak to Ginny, but she's Dean's best mate, you know? And his ex girlfriend to boot. Though she did give me some contraceptive potions. Because I don't want to be a tease, you know. I like Dean. He looks rather nice with little clothing on. He makes my skin all tingly, but I must be safe."

Then she giggled like a fourth year.

He could only recite the 8 laws of apparition so many times. He'd caught some words in there. Ginny's name and contraceptive- "You went to see Ginny to get a contraceptive potion? Why? Are you and Dean having sex?" Fuck. He'd really not actually meant to care, or actually comment, but Ginny was giving contraceptive potions to anyone who walked in? Wasn't that a bad idea? Harry really didn't want a pregnant trainee, this was true, but he also didn't want his ex-girlfriend giving contraceptive potions to his trainee who was dating her ex-boyfriend. Yes. Conflict of interest, that's what it was. Honest.

"Shush!" Natalie said, likely spraying Harry a bit before she cast a silencing charm around her cubicle. "No. Not yet, but sometimes before I know what's happened there's no shirts on and hands are on my rear end, you know? Not that I mind. It's very nice. But I have to take precautions. I'm not ready to be a mother, not that I don't want to be in the very distant future. Yes, I went to Ginny. Who else am I going to go to? Snape? Oh that'd be fun. Yes, sir, remember the girl who was partnered with the fellow who you say melted near as many cauldrons as Longbottom? She's wanting birth control. Though that might have actually won him over. He'd probably like to sterilize most of his ex students."

Harry grimaced. He wasn't sure how much more he could sit through. "Yes, well, no, we don't want you pregnant. That would be bad. Can't go into wandless combat training when you're pregnant." He stood, looking around the cubby. "Do tell me if you need any help. With that. Wandless Training, not the contraceptive things. I'm not- You really don't want me- Yes. Right."

Natalie made a face at him. Who knew Harry Potter's weakness was speaking of contraception? She never would have guessed. But he looked very uncomfortable just now.

"I'm getting help with that actually. Though I don't know how much I believe the tree trunk at Three Broomsticks when he says size really doesn't matter in a brawl."

"Trust Brody. He's a good fighter. Don't turn him down if he offers to have you spar with his sister Mac. You met her the day Wa-" He shook his head. "You remember her, I'm sure." He nodded. "Let me know if you need any help with anything. I'll call you if we get a break in the Jones case."

Natalie nodded. "I remembered Brody too. Does he do that to all the ladies? And should I let him show me what's under his kilt? He offered. Do they have special underwear or something?"

"Dean would be rather put out if you took him up on that offer, I'd wager." Shaking his head, Harry walked away from her cubby. If he never heard the word contraceptive out of her mouth again, it would be too soon.

Natalie rolled out of her cubby to watch Harry leave. She grinned. This was much better. Things felt normal again. Well, with the exception of all her Dean-shaped thoughts. He had not owled or anything. Well, perhaps she would just owl him then. Now if they could just find Megan Jones, everything would probably fall into place. Probably.


{SUMMARY} Hestia's back on the job. She discusses the Megan situation with Harry and Natalie. Then Harry and Natalie discuss things Harry would probably rather not have discussed.