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Fic: Four Times Harry Was Intrigued by Astoria Malfoy, and One Time He Was No Longer Interested 1/5
Title: Four Times Harry Was Intrigued by Astoria Malfoy, and One Time He Was No Longer Interested
Author: Eldabe/Eldarwannabe
Fandom: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Rating: Teen (for mentions of death)
Characters: Harry Potter, Astoria Greengrass Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Daphne Greengrass, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger
Pairing(s): Draco Malfoy/Astoria Greengrass Malfoy, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Note: With thanks to![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
shoshanaisabelle, without whom this fic would still not have an ending. This was posted for ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
astoriafest, a fandom fest I'm running on Dreamwidth and tumblr.
Summary: Harry, still a fairly new Auror, didn't know what to expect when he received his first summons to the Department of Mysteries. He certainly was not expecting to meet Draco Malfoy's wife.
1.
Harry silently urged the elevator to move faster, adjusting his Auror's robes impatiently. Nearly three years in the ministry and he never had to deal with the Department of Mysteries. But apparently when they sent a summons, it didn't matter that you were in the middle of two cases and trying to coordinate new evidence custody standards with Hermione. Kinglsey told him it wasn't worth the trouble to ignore them without a good reason so now Harry was running late from arguing with a new trainee.
The memo had not exactly had a lot of information when it flew into his cubicle on Friday on black parchment instead of the normal Ministry purple, telling him that he was to report to the Department of Mysteries at two in the afternoon on Monday. Mr. Weasley had shrugged when Harry talked to him about it during Sunday dinner.
"It could be anything, Harry," Mr. Weasley had said, loading his plate with mushy peas. "You'll have to tell us about it."
"You think they're finally going to get you for destroying all of those prophesies?" Ron joked.
"Nah," Ginny said, "They'd be putting all the blame on you, Ron, not the Chosen One."
"You should go with him, Ginny," Ron shot back, "offer to let the start studying Quidditch skills."
"Could you?" Harry broke in. "You have off tomorrow, right?"
"Was Ginny named in the letter, Harry?" Percy asked, from further down the table.
"No?" Harry said. "But if it has anything to do with the prophecy stuff, Ginny, Ron and Hermione were all there."
"And Luna and Neville," Hermione added.
Percy was shaking his head. "If it's for the Department of Mysteries, only the people actually invited are allowed in. They've tightened security since you all broke in."
"Yes," Mr. Weasley agreed, "you'll have to bring your letter, Harry. I think that might be the only way to get past the door."
Mrs. Weasley came out then with the roast and the whole conversation had been interrupted. Harry nearly forgot about it until Ginny pulled him aside before he got in the Floo.
"Remember," Ginny said, "if they ask you to donate your brain to the brain collection, I'm not done with it yet." They had managed a thorough snog before Ron bellowed that he certainly wasn't waking Harry the next morning.
Harry smirked a little at the memory as the elevator doors opened, and he rushed down the hall. Hermione had advised a little more caution and deference when she came by their office to say hi to Ron that morning. "They're enormously influential in the Ministry, Harry. It's worth staying friendly."
Which is why Harry was trying not to be too late to this mysterious meeting.
He slowed down as he approached to door to the Department of Mysteries and smoothed his down his robes. He could hear voices chatting in front of the door and Harry was startled to realize he recognized one of those voices --
"--if you're sure." Draco was saying to the woman standing next to him. She was smiling at him kindly, and Harry noticed that they were holding hands, both of her hands held in his as they faced each other. Draco's back was to Harry, and he hadn’t noticed Harry yet. The woman's eyes didn't leave Draco's face as she laughed.
"It will be fine, Draco," she said, and leaned forward to kiss him. She noticed Harry as she pulled back. "Oh, hello!"
Draco turned around, and froze seeing Harry.
"Hello," Harry said cautiously.
The woman turned back to Draco. "See? Everything will be fine. Harry Potter is here!"
Draco and Harry's eyes met for a second and Harry knew that Draco absolutely knew better than to think Harry' presence made everything fine, ever.
In that moment of hesitation, the woman leaned forward and kissed Draco's cheek. "Go home, I'll Floo back later. The goblins are supposed to come to change the locks, don't forget."
Draco turned back to the woman and took her hand again. "Be careful," he said, low.
The woman squeezed Draco’s hands. "I will be."
Draco met Harry's eyes again deliberately, and then nodded, before he strode down the hall. The woman watched Draco go, a small smile playing on her lips.
"He worries," she explained to Harry, and then put out her hand. "Hello, I'm Astoria Greengra-Sorry! Malfoy. Astoria Malfoy."
Harry automatically reached out to shake her hand, and blurted before he could stop himself, "You married Malfoy?"
His tone had been more incredulous than congratulatory, but she broke out in a massive smile. "Yes, a little less than a month ago, now."
Harry vaguely remembered Hermione mentioning something to do with Malfoy a few weeks ago. Hermione was the one that reminded him that the Society section of the Daily Prophet was actually worth reading.
Harry was trying to figure out if he should congratulate her or offer her or kidnap her to St. Mungo's when she spotted the letter in his hand.
"Oh, are you here for a meeting as well?" Astoria asked. She dug in her handbag and pulled out a familiar-looking black letter. "They didn't give a lot of details, did they?"
"No," Harry agreed, as she unfolded her black parchment, which looked just like his own.
"Getting this was so scary," Astoria said, laughing. "Parents always tell their children about the Department of Mysteries to get them to behave. My father used to say that if I didn't stop jumping down the stairs to the garden he would send me to the Department of Mysteries so they could permanently attach a broom to my bottom."
Harry laughed along weakly. She seemed so different from how he imagined someone who would have married Draco Malfoy. She wasn't at all like Pansy Parkinson, for example.
She flattened her letter as if she was about to show him something, when the door opened. A middle-aged witch in Unspeakable robes came out, looking annoyed.
"Have you your invitations?"
Harry and Astoria both held their letters up.
"Good," the witch said, "Come along, then."
Before Harry could take a step, Astoria slipped beside him and tucked her arm around his, resting her hand in the crook of his elbow. She seemed more nervous now that the witch was leading them inside.
Harry awkwardly walked through the door with her into the room of black doors lit by blue flame. As he crossed the threshold, the black parchment crumbled into dust in his hand, and Astoria's did as well. The Unspeakable witch didn't even blink.
The door to the hallway slammed behind them and the doors began to spin around the wildly. Harry, who had been expecting it, felt Astoria's grip tighten. Harry turned to reassure her. Before he could come up with the words, the doors stopped spinning and the witch stepped up to one of them confidently and pushed it open.
Harry was more careful walking with Astoria through the second door, so it took him a moment to notice where they were.
The room looked exactly the same. The stone benches descended into the pit in the floor where the stone archway sat, the tattered black curtain moving as if in a light wind.
Harry froze. For a moment he was there again and Lupin was holding him back as Sirius disappeared forever. His heart raced.
Astoria was looking at the arch, her lips slightly open. If Harry strained, he was sure he could hear the voices softly calling--Harry cleared his throat.
"No," he said. He meant it to be firm, but it came out hoarse. Astoria closed her mouth. The witch, who had been walking forward briskly, stopped and looked back at them.
"No," Harry repeated. "I have no idea what you think you're doing with us, but no, I won't do it." He wanted to sound more authoritative, but his voice trailed off at the end.
Astoria turned sharply from Harry to the wizard, her voice crisp. "If Mr. Potter leaves, I leave as well," she said, with all the firmness Harry couldn't summon.
The witch looked surprised and flustered. "Mr. Potter, Ms. Greengrass-"
"Mrs. Malfoy," Astoria corrected.
"-yes, my apologies, Mrs. Malfoy, I assure you we are not approaching the arch, we merely wish-"
Another witch poked her head out of a doorway Harry hadn't noticed on the other side of the room. "Turpin, are you scaring them off? I told you they aren't Unspeakables"
The second witch strode out of the office. She had brown skin and her hair was in a neat twist under her hat. She walked around the edge of the room towards them.
"My apologies for Turpin," she said, shaking her head. "Honestly, if the two of you could just come over the offices we could get started."
"Started on what?" Harry said. He was starting to put himself between the Unspeakables and Astoria. He could push her toward the door and blast the Unspeakables back if they weren't going to let them through.
The witch waved her arm. "A few scanning spells, maybe a few ounces of blood. We do have a few questions for the both of you, but we've only really begun the research. We only just want information at this point."
"Information?" Astoria asked, confused.
"Just a baseline examination," the Unspeakable confirmed. "Shouldn't take too long."
Harry looked down at the arch. "Will we be told what this examination is to study?" His voice was dry.
"Certainly not!" Turpin protested, "You are serving a duty to the future of magic-kind, not getting a tour of the Department! The idea-"
The second witch rolled her eyes again. "If you wish," she said, "but that would be a much longer process as we would first need your permission to modify your memory after we explained."
"So if you tell us, you'll take our memories, and if we just guess, you won't?" Harry was frustrated with the bureaucracy of the Ministry all the time, but he was starting to have the dawning realization that he knew why the witches and wizards who studied death might be interested in him.
"Exactly," she confirmed. "So really it would be best if you answer our questions, and you'll be on your way shortly."
Astoria was watching him closely. Harry had no idea why she was here. Part of him was still uneasy in the room, and he didn't trust them at all. But he didn't want to leave; he wanted more information.
"Just a few charms, and some questions?" Harry checked.
"And we'll probably need to draw blood," the witch said. "For future study, of course."
"Fine," Harry decided. "But if either Mrs. Malfoy or I wish to leave at at any time, both of us will be leaving."
Turpin sputtered for a bit, but the second witch took it all in stride. "Of course. Mr. Potter, would you please come into the office with us? Mrs. Malfoy, you may wait outside the office."
The witch walked them over to the door on the other side of the room, behind which Harry could see a perfectly ordinary office with a desk and chairs and a bookcase. She guided Astoria to sit on the highest stone bench, only a few feet from the door to the office.
"Don't go down there," Harry said to Astoria. She nodded, her eyes cautious. Harry noticed she was gripping her bag tightly. Her wand was probably in there. Well, if she was married to Draco Malfoy she probably knew a few spells to protect herself.
Harry went in the office.
As they said, it was mostly a lot of questions. Harry had not shared many details about going out to the woods to confront Voldemort at the night of the Battle of Hogwarts. For one, it was just too complicated, and for the other, Harry didn't want to reveal the reality of the Hallows. Or make Horcruxes common knowledge. The two witches were less interested in the Hallows than in Harry himself.
"And you didn't raise your wand to defend yourself?"
"No."
"What did it feel like?"
Harry searched through his memory and tried to describe the sudden peace of being on the train platform with Dumbledore. They didn't let go, though, making him walk through every second from walking out between the trees to the moment when he woke up again and didn't feel any pain from the Death Eater curses.
"Fascinating, fascinating," Turpin muttered, taking notes. "Unspeakable Bhatia, what do you think of this?" They were both asking questions and taking notes and comparing what they wrote and they barely looked at Harry as they talked.
Harry waited for it to feel invasive, but their questions didn’t really bother him. They didn't care about his feelings, and it was nicely impersonal as a result. Harry recounted what happened and they quizzed him on details until Harry said he couldn't recall. They got excited about the silliest things, like how Harry had been physically fine when he woke up, and how he didn't feel any effects during the battle. Harry told them that he thought his exhaustion that night had been a result of the amount of time he's been awake more than some sort of existential weariness of his "newly awakened" soul. They whispered to each other for a few minutes, and then started doing a bunch of charms. A lot of them were the same charms that the Auror Mediwizards used, scanning his body for overall health and producing a few images of his bones and internal organs on glass sheets.
At then end they took some blood and asked him about his general health at present. Harry was probably in better shape in Auror training than he had been even under Oliver's obsessive exercise regime.
After they compared notes, they let him go outside and asked him to send Astoria in.
Astoria was sitting in the same spot on the stone bench, her gaze focused on the arch below her. She was breathing in time with the curtain, Harry noticed. She was straining forward.
"I hear them too," Harry said, recalling Luna standing next to him in his fifth year. It made him feel better, he remembered. Less alone.
Astoria startled. "Oh!" she said, turning away from the arch. She shook her head, and put one hand on her chest, taking a deep breath. "Is it my turn?"
"Yes," Harry said, and when she put her hand up, he helped her up. Before taking a step forward, she turned back to look at the arch for a moment.
"It's not a good idea," Harry advised.
"Right, of course," Astoria said. She straightened her robes and walked into the office. The door swung closed behind her, and Harry took her spot on the bench.
Harry stared down at the arch. He could see where Sirius and Bellatrix had been standing, during that final duel. Other memories were fuzzier; Harry couldn't recall where had been standing. He'd been too distracted by his own duels, and then Sirius. He could hear the mutters and whispers from the arch, but he stayed firmly in his seat.
Harry blew out a breath. This was the closest thing Sirius had to a grave, he supposed. Sometimes he'd talk to Sirius when he went to visit his parents at Godric's Hollow, or when he brought Teddy to Lupin and Tonks' graves. But Sirius himself didn't have one. Sirius probably didn't care one way or another, but Harry wondered if he should put some sort of marker up. In some ways Grimmauld Place was a marker. Sirius would hate that.
"You can have the whole ministry, if you want," Harry said to the arch. "Although I imagine you might like Weasley's Wizard Wheezes more."
The curtain fluttered softly.
Harry watched it, wondering what Sirius would think of his life now. In some ways, Harry was free in a way he'd never known Sirius to be. But he also worked for the Ministry now, and enforced the very laws Sirius had ignored since Hogwarts. Harry was more at peace with Sirius' death then he had been. But there was still an ache of regret sitting and watching the arch. This was the place where Harry lost Sirius. It shouldn’t be the place where Harry went to be close to Sirius still.
Harry heard the door open, and he twisted around to see Astoria coming out. She was clearly upset, twisting a handkerchief in her hand. The Unspeakables were totally unaware, still chatting in their analytic, distant way like they had been for Harry.
"Astoria?" Harry asked hesitantly. She quickly put on a smile, although it didn't quite brighten up her face.
"Helping the future of all magic-kind, was it? I suppose that's nothing for you, Harry Potter, but it's quite exciting for the rest of us witches and wizards." She dabbed the corners of her eyes. "Do you suppose they ever realize we're still here?"
They both looked back at the office where the witches were huddled over a long stretch of parchment and discussing something . They looked up eventually when Astoria coughed politely.
"Oh, right, yes," Turpin said. "Of course."
This time she hustled them along, tapping her foot impatiently while the doors spun around them, and practically shoved them out into the hallway, the door to the Department of Mysteries closing quickly behind them.
Both of them looked at each other. "I suppose we're not needed anymore, then?" Astoria's eyes were crinkled with laughter now.
"I suppose not," Harry said. Harry offered her his arm. He had planned on running back to work after the meeting, but he wanted to walk to her to the Floo.
"It's not as exciting as I thought it would be," Astoria said thoughtfully as they made their way to the lift. She was walking slower now, more hesitantly.
"There are lots of other parts," Harry said, and at Astoria's encouragement he described some of the things he'd seen last time, leaving out the terror and her new father-in-law and just focusing on some of the interesting magic. They rode the lift to the atrium and walked towards the Floos together, Astoria listening closely.
Astoria was fascinated. "They kept all the time turners together?"
"Yeah," Harry said, "back when they had them."
They walked past the new fountain as Astoria shook her head. "I'm glad they're gone, actually. Despite it all, I think the ministry made the right choice to not rebuild the collection."
Harry agreed. There were rumors, of course, of time turners floating around. But any that existed in other countries were under strict watch and the Ministry had instructed the Department of Mysteries to avoid time turners in the future.
They arrived at the first available Floo, and Astoria pulled her hand out from Harry's arm. "Thank you again, Harry Potter," she said, and pulled a bit of Floo from her bag and threw it in the fire.
"Pemberly Flat," she said confidently, and was swept away in the green flames.
Part 2.
Author: Eldabe/Eldarwannabe
Fandom: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Rating: Teen (for mentions of death)
Characters: Harry Potter, Astoria Greengrass Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Daphne Greengrass, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger
Pairing(s): Draco Malfoy/Astoria Greengrass Malfoy, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Note: With thanks to
astoriafest, a fandom fest I'm running on Dreamwidth and tumblr. Summary: Harry, still a fairly new Auror, didn't know what to expect when he received his first summons to the Department of Mysteries. He certainly was not expecting to meet Draco Malfoy's wife.
1.
Harry silently urged the elevator to move faster, adjusting his Auror's robes impatiently. Nearly three years in the ministry and he never had to deal with the Department of Mysteries. But apparently when they sent a summons, it didn't matter that you were in the middle of two cases and trying to coordinate new evidence custody standards with Hermione. Kinglsey told him it wasn't worth the trouble to ignore them without a good reason so now Harry was running late from arguing with a new trainee.
The memo had not exactly had a lot of information when it flew into his cubicle on Friday on black parchment instead of the normal Ministry purple, telling him that he was to report to the Department of Mysteries at two in the afternoon on Monday. Mr. Weasley had shrugged when Harry talked to him about it during Sunday dinner.
"It could be anything, Harry," Mr. Weasley had said, loading his plate with mushy peas. "You'll have to tell us about it."
"You think they're finally going to get you for destroying all of those prophesies?" Ron joked.
"Nah," Ginny said, "They'd be putting all the blame on you, Ron, not the Chosen One."
"You should go with him, Ginny," Ron shot back, "offer to let the start studying Quidditch skills."
"Could you?" Harry broke in. "You have off tomorrow, right?"
"Was Ginny named in the letter, Harry?" Percy asked, from further down the table.
"No?" Harry said. "But if it has anything to do with the prophecy stuff, Ginny, Ron and Hermione were all there."
"And Luna and Neville," Hermione added.
Percy was shaking his head. "If it's for the Department of Mysteries, only the people actually invited are allowed in. They've tightened security since you all broke in."
"Yes," Mr. Weasley agreed, "you'll have to bring your letter, Harry. I think that might be the only way to get past the door."
Mrs. Weasley came out then with the roast and the whole conversation had been interrupted. Harry nearly forgot about it until Ginny pulled him aside before he got in the Floo.
"Remember," Ginny said, "if they ask you to donate your brain to the brain collection, I'm not done with it yet." They had managed a thorough snog before Ron bellowed that he certainly wasn't waking Harry the next morning.
Harry smirked a little at the memory as the elevator doors opened, and he rushed down the hall. Hermione had advised a little more caution and deference when she came by their office to say hi to Ron that morning. "They're enormously influential in the Ministry, Harry. It's worth staying friendly."
Which is why Harry was trying not to be too late to this mysterious meeting.
He slowed down as he approached to door to the Department of Mysteries and smoothed his down his robes. He could hear voices chatting in front of the door and Harry was startled to realize he recognized one of those voices --
"--if you're sure." Draco was saying to the woman standing next to him. She was smiling at him kindly, and Harry noticed that they were holding hands, both of her hands held in his as they faced each other. Draco's back was to Harry, and he hadn’t noticed Harry yet. The woman's eyes didn't leave Draco's face as she laughed.
"It will be fine, Draco," she said, and leaned forward to kiss him. She noticed Harry as she pulled back. "Oh, hello!"
Draco turned around, and froze seeing Harry.
"Hello," Harry said cautiously.
The woman turned back to Draco. "See? Everything will be fine. Harry Potter is here!"
Draco and Harry's eyes met for a second and Harry knew that Draco absolutely knew better than to think Harry' presence made everything fine, ever.
In that moment of hesitation, the woman leaned forward and kissed Draco's cheek. "Go home, I'll Floo back later. The goblins are supposed to come to change the locks, don't forget."
Draco turned back to the woman and took her hand again. "Be careful," he said, low.
The woman squeezed Draco’s hands. "I will be."
Draco met Harry's eyes again deliberately, and then nodded, before he strode down the hall. The woman watched Draco go, a small smile playing on her lips.
"He worries," she explained to Harry, and then put out her hand. "Hello, I'm Astoria Greengra-Sorry! Malfoy. Astoria Malfoy."
Harry automatically reached out to shake her hand, and blurted before he could stop himself, "You married Malfoy?"
His tone had been more incredulous than congratulatory, but she broke out in a massive smile. "Yes, a little less than a month ago, now."
Harry vaguely remembered Hermione mentioning something to do with Malfoy a few weeks ago. Hermione was the one that reminded him that the Society section of the Daily Prophet was actually worth reading.
Harry was trying to figure out if he should congratulate her or offer her or kidnap her to St. Mungo's when she spotted the letter in his hand.
"Oh, are you here for a meeting as well?" Astoria asked. She dug in her handbag and pulled out a familiar-looking black letter. "They didn't give a lot of details, did they?"
"No," Harry agreed, as she unfolded her black parchment, which looked just like his own.
"Getting this was so scary," Astoria said, laughing. "Parents always tell their children about the Department of Mysteries to get them to behave. My father used to say that if I didn't stop jumping down the stairs to the garden he would send me to the Department of Mysteries so they could permanently attach a broom to my bottom."
Harry laughed along weakly. She seemed so different from how he imagined someone who would have married Draco Malfoy. She wasn't at all like Pansy Parkinson, for example.
She flattened her letter as if she was about to show him something, when the door opened. A middle-aged witch in Unspeakable robes came out, looking annoyed.
"Have you your invitations?"
Harry and Astoria both held their letters up.
"Good," the witch said, "Come along, then."
Before Harry could take a step, Astoria slipped beside him and tucked her arm around his, resting her hand in the crook of his elbow. She seemed more nervous now that the witch was leading them inside.
Harry awkwardly walked through the door with her into the room of black doors lit by blue flame. As he crossed the threshold, the black parchment crumbled into dust in his hand, and Astoria's did as well. The Unspeakable witch didn't even blink.
The door to the hallway slammed behind them and the doors began to spin around the wildly. Harry, who had been expecting it, felt Astoria's grip tighten. Harry turned to reassure her. Before he could come up with the words, the doors stopped spinning and the witch stepped up to one of them confidently and pushed it open.
Harry was more careful walking with Astoria through the second door, so it took him a moment to notice where they were.
The room looked exactly the same. The stone benches descended into the pit in the floor where the stone archway sat, the tattered black curtain moving as if in a light wind.
Harry froze. For a moment he was there again and Lupin was holding him back as Sirius disappeared forever. His heart raced.
Astoria was looking at the arch, her lips slightly open. If Harry strained, he was sure he could hear the voices softly calling--Harry cleared his throat.
"No," he said. He meant it to be firm, but it came out hoarse. Astoria closed her mouth. The witch, who had been walking forward briskly, stopped and looked back at them.
"No," Harry repeated. "I have no idea what you think you're doing with us, but no, I won't do it." He wanted to sound more authoritative, but his voice trailed off at the end.
Astoria turned sharply from Harry to the wizard, her voice crisp. "If Mr. Potter leaves, I leave as well," she said, with all the firmness Harry couldn't summon.
The witch looked surprised and flustered. "Mr. Potter, Ms. Greengrass-"
"Mrs. Malfoy," Astoria corrected.
"-yes, my apologies, Mrs. Malfoy, I assure you we are not approaching the arch, we merely wish-"
Another witch poked her head out of a doorway Harry hadn't noticed on the other side of the room. "Turpin, are you scaring them off? I told you they aren't Unspeakables"
The second witch strode out of the office. She had brown skin and her hair was in a neat twist under her hat. She walked around the edge of the room towards them.
"My apologies for Turpin," she said, shaking her head. "Honestly, if the two of you could just come over the offices we could get started."
"Started on what?" Harry said. He was starting to put himself between the Unspeakables and Astoria. He could push her toward the door and blast the Unspeakables back if they weren't going to let them through.
The witch waved her arm. "A few scanning spells, maybe a few ounces of blood. We do have a few questions for the both of you, but we've only really begun the research. We only just want information at this point."
"Information?" Astoria asked, confused.
"Just a baseline examination," the Unspeakable confirmed. "Shouldn't take too long."
Harry looked down at the arch. "Will we be told what this examination is to study?" His voice was dry.
"Certainly not!" Turpin protested, "You are serving a duty to the future of magic-kind, not getting a tour of the Department! The idea-"
The second witch rolled her eyes again. "If you wish," she said, "but that would be a much longer process as we would first need your permission to modify your memory after we explained."
"So if you tell us, you'll take our memories, and if we just guess, you won't?" Harry was frustrated with the bureaucracy of the Ministry all the time, but he was starting to have the dawning realization that he knew why the witches and wizards who studied death might be interested in him.
"Exactly," she confirmed. "So really it would be best if you answer our questions, and you'll be on your way shortly."
Astoria was watching him closely. Harry had no idea why she was here. Part of him was still uneasy in the room, and he didn't trust them at all. But he didn't want to leave; he wanted more information.
"Just a few charms, and some questions?" Harry checked.
"And we'll probably need to draw blood," the witch said. "For future study, of course."
"Fine," Harry decided. "But if either Mrs. Malfoy or I wish to leave at at any time, both of us will be leaving."
Turpin sputtered for a bit, but the second witch took it all in stride. "Of course. Mr. Potter, would you please come into the office with us? Mrs. Malfoy, you may wait outside the office."
The witch walked them over to the door on the other side of the room, behind which Harry could see a perfectly ordinary office with a desk and chairs and a bookcase. She guided Astoria to sit on the highest stone bench, only a few feet from the door to the office.
"Don't go down there," Harry said to Astoria. She nodded, her eyes cautious. Harry noticed she was gripping her bag tightly. Her wand was probably in there. Well, if she was married to Draco Malfoy she probably knew a few spells to protect herself.
Harry went in the office.
As they said, it was mostly a lot of questions. Harry had not shared many details about going out to the woods to confront Voldemort at the night of the Battle of Hogwarts. For one, it was just too complicated, and for the other, Harry didn't want to reveal the reality of the Hallows. Or make Horcruxes common knowledge. The two witches were less interested in the Hallows than in Harry himself.
"And you didn't raise your wand to defend yourself?"
"No."
"What did it feel like?"
Harry searched through his memory and tried to describe the sudden peace of being on the train platform with Dumbledore. They didn't let go, though, making him walk through every second from walking out between the trees to the moment when he woke up again and didn't feel any pain from the Death Eater curses.
"Fascinating, fascinating," Turpin muttered, taking notes. "Unspeakable Bhatia, what do you think of this?" They were both asking questions and taking notes and comparing what they wrote and they barely looked at Harry as they talked.
Harry waited for it to feel invasive, but their questions didn’t really bother him. They didn't care about his feelings, and it was nicely impersonal as a result. Harry recounted what happened and they quizzed him on details until Harry said he couldn't recall. They got excited about the silliest things, like how Harry had been physically fine when he woke up, and how he didn't feel any effects during the battle. Harry told them that he thought his exhaustion that night had been a result of the amount of time he's been awake more than some sort of existential weariness of his "newly awakened" soul. They whispered to each other for a few minutes, and then started doing a bunch of charms. A lot of them were the same charms that the Auror Mediwizards used, scanning his body for overall health and producing a few images of his bones and internal organs on glass sheets.
At then end they took some blood and asked him about his general health at present. Harry was probably in better shape in Auror training than he had been even under Oliver's obsessive exercise regime.
After they compared notes, they let him go outside and asked him to send Astoria in.
Astoria was sitting in the same spot on the stone bench, her gaze focused on the arch below her. She was breathing in time with the curtain, Harry noticed. She was straining forward.
"I hear them too," Harry said, recalling Luna standing next to him in his fifth year. It made him feel better, he remembered. Less alone.
Astoria startled. "Oh!" she said, turning away from the arch. She shook her head, and put one hand on her chest, taking a deep breath. "Is it my turn?"
"Yes," Harry said, and when she put her hand up, he helped her up. Before taking a step forward, she turned back to look at the arch for a moment.
"It's not a good idea," Harry advised.
"Right, of course," Astoria said. She straightened her robes and walked into the office. The door swung closed behind her, and Harry took her spot on the bench.
Harry stared down at the arch. He could see where Sirius and Bellatrix had been standing, during that final duel. Other memories were fuzzier; Harry couldn't recall where had been standing. He'd been too distracted by his own duels, and then Sirius. He could hear the mutters and whispers from the arch, but he stayed firmly in his seat.
Harry blew out a breath. This was the closest thing Sirius had to a grave, he supposed. Sometimes he'd talk to Sirius when he went to visit his parents at Godric's Hollow, or when he brought Teddy to Lupin and Tonks' graves. But Sirius himself didn't have one. Sirius probably didn't care one way or another, but Harry wondered if he should put some sort of marker up. In some ways Grimmauld Place was a marker. Sirius would hate that.
"You can have the whole ministry, if you want," Harry said to the arch. "Although I imagine you might like Weasley's Wizard Wheezes more."
The curtain fluttered softly.
Harry watched it, wondering what Sirius would think of his life now. In some ways, Harry was free in a way he'd never known Sirius to be. But he also worked for the Ministry now, and enforced the very laws Sirius had ignored since Hogwarts. Harry was more at peace with Sirius' death then he had been. But there was still an ache of regret sitting and watching the arch. This was the place where Harry lost Sirius. It shouldn’t be the place where Harry went to be close to Sirius still.
Harry heard the door open, and he twisted around to see Astoria coming out. She was clearly upset, twisting a handkerchief in her hand. The Unspeakables were totally unaware, still chatting in their analytic, distant way like they had been for Harry.
"Astoria?" Harry asked hesitantly. She quickly put on a smile, although it didn't quite brighten up her face.
"Helping the future of all magic-kind, was it? I suppose that's nothing for you, Harry Potter, but it's quite exciting for the rest of us witches and wizards." She dabbed the corners of her eyes. "Do you suppose they ever realize we're still here?"
They both looked back at the office where the witches were huddled over a long stretch of parchment and discussing something . They looked up eventually when Astoria coughed politely.
"Oh, right, yes," Turpin said. "Of course."
This time she hustled them along, tapping her foot impatiently while the doors spun around them, and practically shoved them out into the hallway, the door to the Department of Mysteries closing quickly behind them.
Both of them looked at each other. "I suppose we're not needed anymore, then?" Astoria's eyes were crinkled with laughter now.
"I suppose not," Harry said. Harry offered her his arm. He had planned on running back to work after the meeting, but he wanted to walk to her to the Floo.
"It's not as exciting as I thought it would be," Astoria said thoughtfully as they made their way to the lift. She was walking slower now, more hesitantly.
"There are lots of other parts," Harry said, and at Astoria's encouragement he described some of the things he'd seen last time, leaving out the terror and her new father-in-law and just focusing on some of the interesting magic. They rode the lift to the atrium and walked towards the Floos together, Astoria listening closely.
Astoria was fascinated. "They kept all the time turners together?"
"Yeah," Harry said, "back when they had them."
They walked past the new fountain as Astoria shook her head. "I'm glad they're gone, actually. Despite it all, I think the ministry made the right choice to not rebuild the collection."
Harry agreed. There were rumors, of course, of time turners floating around. But any that existed in other countries were under strict watch and the Ministry had instructed the Department of Mysteries to avoid time turners in the future.
They arrived at the first available Floo, and Astoria pulled her hand out from Harry's arm. "Thank you again, Harry Potter," she said, and pulled a bit of Floo from her bag and threw it in the fire.
"Pemberly Flat," she said confidently, and was swept away in the green flames.
Part 2.