Report

Albus returned to the Ministry, ready to tell the others what he had found out. At least the conversation hadn't been a complete waste. He saw Rose working on her endless stack of reports and Scorpius sitting beside her, holding her hand that was not writing. The two of them could be so mushy at times, but he supposed that was to be expected after being separated for so long. Scorpius finally noticed him as he entered the office.

"How did it go?"

"Well, it wasn't a complete waste of time. And it was a bit satisfying seeing her realise that she had nothing left to bargain with. I managed to get her to tell us where Tom Crickey is, by pretending that we already knew. She also wanted to have a trial, thinking dad would lead it and she would see him again there. I don't know what she thinks that would accomplish."

"She probably won't have a trial. She will be detained for her own safety, and others. And even if she had a trial, Harry would not be leading it, I'm sure." Rose said.

"Yes, that's what I told her as well. That's what finally made her lose her composure. She attacked me, so now she has to be restrained."

"Why on earth wasn't she already restrained?" Scorpius asked indignantly. 

"I wondered about that as well, but according to the Healer she had cooperated with them so far. I wish I could say I was sorry that I made his job harder, but I'm not."

"It won't be his job to restrain her for long," Harry said from the doorway. He had seen Albus arrive and wanted to hear the report as well. "I have a perfect place for her. In jail. A Healer may visit her if they wish, but she isn't getting out of there as long as I have anything to say about it."

Scorpius nodded. 

"Where did she say Tom was?" Rose asked. 

"Still in Azkaban, but not under his own name." Albus replied. Harry nodded at that.

"I suspected as much. I need to send a group to do a manual identity check of every prisoner there. Can you handle that, Rose?"

"Me?"

"You have prior knowledge of Azkaban after all. You can't avoid it forever. You would be the one best suited to find any hidden cell where she might have stashed an unregistered prisoner. Besides, you've met Tom, you can recognise him."

Rose sighed. "I suppose you're right. May I at least Apparate there, so it won't take all day?"

"No, that is only for emergencies. You can maybe Apparate back, if you find him in poor condition. Take some paperwork with you, that is what I do to keep myself occupied on the way there."

Rose sighed again. Paperwork. Endless amounts of it. But at least a 3-hour boat ride would give her time to get some of it done. 

"Will you be okay alone, Scorpius, or do you want to come with me?"

"With you? To Azkaban?" Scorpius hadn't seemed to consider that idea. "No. No, I don't think that's a good idea. Some people there might recognise me. I'll stay here with Albus, and maybe later go and find James." Rose nodded. She hadn't really wanted to bring Scorpius there anyway; he probably shouldn't be exposed to that depressing site. 

"I'll assign 2 or 3 others to come with you and have our latest list of prisoners ready for you within the hour," Harry said. "That way, you will probably have time to get there and back again today." 

Rose sighed but started preparing to go to Azkaban. She didn't really look forward to it. Would any of them recognise her? Sam had, but she had dressed up for him. It would be best not to mention her previous time there at all. Not unless some of them mentioned it first. 

***

Only 4 hours later, Rose was once again in Azkaban. She had hoped she would never have to return here, but, as an Auror that had probably been an impossible thing to wish for.

She was greeted with a security and identity check, which was already more than they had done last time. None of them reacted to her name and she didn't recognise either of these guards from her previous stay.

"We are here to have a manual control of each prisoner's identity," she said. "We have reason to think someone is being kept here under a false name."

The guard blinked. He was probably not expecting something like that. 

"We don't suspect any of you to have done something wrong," Rose hastened to assure them. "The mistake happened at our end, if it has occurred." That seemed to help reassure the guards. 

"I will go get the head of the guards right away, ma'am." one of them said as he gave a small bow.

Rose was surprised when she saw who was pointed out as the head of guards. That was one of the people that had started to work here at the same time as herself. How had he become the head of the guard that quickly? 

"Mrs. Malfoy, nice to meet you," the man said. "I am Sean Feinster. I understand you are here to do an identity control? I have never heard of such a thing actually happening, but I assume you have the correct paperwork for why it is necessary?"

"Yes, of course," Rose said as she handed him the letter of authority from Hermione and the longer one from Harry about what the problem was. It didn't seem like Sean recognised her.

Sean was a quick reader, he soon realised what the problem was. He also seemed relieved that the problem was not on their end, for once. Sean quickly found his own list of registered prisoners and they saw that the two lists matched perfectly. And no prisoner named Crickey was registered. Nor Lehrer, Fawley or any of Scorpius' other aliases. Of course, it couldn't be that easy. 

"It seems we need to make a manual identity check of each prisoner," Rose said with a sigh. 

"I understand. We do have the arrest photos of each of them, would that be helpful?"

Rose hadn't thought about that. It would help them save some time, to rule out some that it could definitely not be. 

"That would be a great place to start. Where are they located?"

"In my office. Follow me, please."

It was stranger than she thought it would be, to see these familiar hallways again after all this time. She had only been here for about two weeks, but it was two weeks that was branded into her brain, both because of what led her here and how it ended. It had probably not been the best idea, but it had led to this prison being safer, many people being released from the Imperius Curse and the apprehension of the escaped Death Eaters. 

"Do we have the name of the arresting officer for all of these people?" one of the Aurors asked. "That would help us narrow it down as well."

"Sadly, Potter has already checked that," Rose replied. "No unknown names on the list and none that shouldn't be there."

"I remember everyone I've brought here," the Auror said. "I can check those off the list, if the picture matches." The other Auror nodded as well. 

They soon arrived at Sean's office and got to work. Rose had thought the Auror's she had with her was random, but it seems they did trips like this frequently. They could rule out almost a third of the prisoners by visually confirming that they were the same people they had taken here. That lessened the workload considerably. But in the end, there was nothing else to do than to go over all the cells and check that the prisoner in the cell was who they were supposed to be and that they matched their picture and check that the actual number of prisoners in each ward matched the number on the record. They divided the remaining names between them and started going floor by floor. Rose avoided top-security, letting one of the other Aurors check there.