Chapter - 57 : Resurgence Part - 6

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Together they perused a few curio shops and laughed at bad fashion choices before she lightly touched his arm. "I'm a little hungry and I know this great place. Can you Apparate?" she asked curiously.

Harry grimaced. "Not legally."

"We could- What?" she asked, nonplussed.

Harry shrugged. "Not a British citizen, remember. I have no papers so I can't apply for a licence. That's not to say I can't, I'm just leery of committing any kind of crime."

She scowled and opened her mouth to say something undoubtedly crass before she closed it with a snap and furrowed her brow, thinking deeply.

"I think I may know a solution," she said slowly after a minute. "You have both a wand and a vault key, right?"

When he nodded she grabbed his arm tightly. "Do you trust me?"

Harry raised both eyebrows, but nodded, if a bit reluctantly. She twisted on her heel and suddenly he was being crushed on all sides while being sucked through a straw as she Side-Along Apparated him.

They materialised in the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic and Amanda dragged him by the arm towards the guard point to have his wand registered before he had a chance to catch his breath and protest.

"A witch or wizard can identify themselves using a number of Ministry issued documents," she said excitedly as they waited in the short line. "However, if such a document is not available an independent pair of indirect identifying methods may suffice."

"How do you know all that," he asked, bewildered.

She gave a little jolt at the question and flushed. "Didn't I tell you? I work here."

She dragged him into a crowded lift and through a maze of corridors all the way to the Department of Transportation on Level Six. Finally, she came to a halt in a crowded waiting room where they joined a significantly longer line of people headed for a closed door marked 'Apparition Regulation'.

"You really don't like giving directions, do you?" he asked as he rubbed his arm where a hand-shaped bruise may or may not be developing.

"Nope," she said shamelessly, popping her lips. "I'm terrible at that, but wasn't this much more fun and" - she fluttered her eyelashes again and turned her voice husky - "intimate?"

Harry rolled his eyes at her antics. "The time when it was acceptable to drag someone off to your cave is quite a ways behind us, I believe. They frown on such things nowadays."

Lost in happy banter Harry barely paid attention as the people before them were called into the room beyond only to exit deliriously happy or depressed minutes later. Suddenly there wasn't anyone standing in front of him any more and he looked at the closed door in surprise.

Just as it opened and he was about to stride in a familiar no-nonsense voice called his name from across the room.

Harry jerked around to see Madam Bones striding in his direction from where she had just exited the Floo Regulation office, staring straight at him and looking none too pleased.

Amanda let out a small squeak beside him. "Sorry, gotta go, bye," she rushed out, before promptly disappearing in the opposite direction of the frightening woman.

Harry stared after her in confusion and was thus surprised by the firm hand that grabbed his arm – incidentally in the same spot Amanda had squeezed him – as Madam Bones firmly led him to the side.

"But..." he sputtered. "It was my turn."

"Then you should not have sent me a howler, Mr White," she said without a hint of sympathy. "Suddenly I find myself not caring about little things like your place in line."

Harry shook his head and tensed as he realised this may be serious. "Are you arresting me?"

She grunted. "While insulting the Head of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement at the top of your voice is rude and unwise for all sorts of reasons" - she eyed him sternly in clear disapproval - "regrettably, it is not a crime. Of course, there is nothing stopping me from doing something equally petty in return, like forcing you from the head to the back of a very long queue."

Dragging him into an empty office she closed the door and shot spells at the floor, walls and ceiling before enclosing them in a privacy bubble.

Harry winced. "I am a little sorry about that, you know. Not a lot, but a little. It's just... I trusted you with some very dangerous private information and you just went and blabbed to the Department of Mysteries."

"I did nothing but what the law demanded of me, Mr. White," she said sternly. "And for your information, Unspeakables are generally very good at keeping secrets."

"Rookwood was an Unspeakable," he retorted and at that she fell silent and sighed.

"You're not the first person to be upset with me for doing my job and you'll hardly be the last, so I don't really care about that. Grabbing you was just convenient as I won't have to send you a letter later." She eyed him intently. "I wanted to know if you had any more of your unique information."

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