No Small Consolation

Chapter 22

No Small Consolation

"Druella!"

Moody bolted upright with a start and grunted painfully. He grabbed his throbbing shoulder and noticed that it was bandaged. The air smelled like antiseptic. He rubbed the sleep out his eyes and regarded the curtain that was drawn around his bed. Noting the fabric of the thin hospital gown that clothed him, he swung his feet over the edge and sat upright. His jaw clenched when his bare feet touched the cold floor, but the sensation wasn't nearly as jarring as the sound of the curtains being suddenly drawn aside.

A young matron came from behind the curtain, dressed neatly in her hospital uniform. By the look of her, she couldn't have been more than twenty, although she tried to carry herself as if she were much older. "Ah, I thought I heard signs of life about."

Moody got a lay of open room. He didn't recognize the surroundings, yet it had a familiar feel to it. "This isn't Mungos?"

"No, you're in Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts?" Moody repeated, nonplussed. He then smiled and thought aloud, "Because Hogwarts is closer."

She went about her duties, retrieving a clipboard from the edge of the bed. "It's a good thing you came here first, if you were any later, the Weasley brothers would not have survived."

"The boys," he said, recalling last night's ordeal. "Are they alright?"

The matron smiled in answer. "They'll make a full recovery, Auror Moody."

Moody regarded her with a raised eyebrow. "You know my name?"

"It says so right here in your chart, that according to the gent who brought you in."

Moody nodded in understanding. "I hope you don't think me too forward, but you've taken my clothes, and I don't even know what to call you, madam?"

"Pomfrey." She offered her hand, and Moody reached out to shake it, wincing as he did so. She apologized and sat next to him on the bed to examine the wound under his bandage. "A creature of dark magic did this, so you're going to have to heal up the hard way, I'm afraid." She replaced the bandage and rose from the bed to make a notation on the clipboard. "I hope you'll forgive me, but I've never had occasion to make a proper field dressing outside of the classroom."

"Am I your first?"

"No." Pomfrey blushed and stopped writing. "Not technically."

"I'm honored just the same," he said, working the kinks out of his shoulder. "Now, about my clothes?"

"Your partner said he would come back with a fresh change, so I took the liberty of burning them." She grimaced at the thought. "They were imbued with all manner of contaminants, even your pants."

"My pants?" Moody sat erect and felt along his hospital gown. He was indeed wearing nothing underneath.

Pomfrey folded her arms and gave him a rather stern look. "It's nothing I haven't seen before."

Moody chuckled and stood to face her. "I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you, Madam Pomfrey."

She took a step back, as Moody towered over her, and hugged the clipboard to her chest nervously. "Really, Auror Moody, I'm not as inexperienced as I appear."

"Then tell me, Madam Pomfrey, have you seen my wand?"

"Er, sorry?" she said barely above a whisper.

"My wand." He then made a spell casting motion with his hand.

Pomfrey bit her lip. Her face was beet red when she answered, "Your belongings are stowed under your bed."

At her instruction Moody retrieved the tote under his bed. He opened it and was relieved to see that everything of import was in there, namely his two wands and especially his hip flask. He closed the tote when he heard the door open. Moody and Pomfrey turned to see Jeff as he strode through the open doors carrying a cloth bag.

As Jeff approached closer he reached into the bag and palmed a wad of clothes before he addressed Moody. "Imagine the horrors that sprang to mind when your partner asked me to stop by Hogwarts on my way in to bring you a change of raiment?"

"No doubt." Moody replied, catching the bundle that Jeff tossed him. He smirked at Jeff, who paused to give the young matron more than a passing look. "Madam Pomfrey, allow me to introduce Jeff McKinley..."

"Auror First Class Geoffrey McKinley." Jeff took Pomfrey's hand and kissed it. "At your service."

Stammering over her words, she curtsied and excused herself. Jeff watched her as she went, even as Pomfrey closed the door behind her, giving Jeff a parting glance as she did so.

A shrill cough from Moody caused Jeff to blink. He cleared his throat and straightened his tie while he waited for Moody to finish dressing. "So, what the devil have you been doing last night?"

"A little bit of this." After concealing his wands, Moody unscrewed the cap on his hip flask. "And a smidgen of that." He took a swig and replaced the flask in his vest pocket.

"Well, let's get you back to HQ before Auror Murphy gets his claws into you." Without further delay Jeff turned to leave.

Moody kept pace beside him as they exited the hospital wing. "Bah, don't tell me that ponce Murphy is miffed."

"It is his case, Alastor."

"It's about the victim, not Murphy's ego."

"Er, sorry? You have the nerve to lecture about ego?"

"Wait a bloody minute." Moody stopped when they crossed the threshold to the hospital wing. He found himself looking down upon the grand staircase leading to the common area. "What are we doing on the third floor?"

"They've moved the hospital wing to the third floor in recent years." Jeff brushed past him and continued on. "You really should make some of the homecomings, old man."

Moody didn't follow right away. It had indeed been several years since he had last been in Hogwarts. Everything looked as grand as he remembered it, if not a bit smaller. He grinned as he placed his hands on the mahogany staircase and thought how he had taken this place for granted in his childhood.

Jeff's voice interrupted the moment as it echoed across the atrium. "C'mon, we're already late. I've secured a temporary Floo chute in the teachers retreat, but we have to hurry if you don't want to leg it back."

Moody walked briskly to catch up after nearly bumping into Nearly Headless Nick. He followed Jeff through the thick wooden door to the teacher's lounge. Without missing a step Jeff grabbed a pinch of Floo powder and disappeared through the magic chute in a flash of green flame. Moody started to follow but paused when he noticed two people in the back corner. He immediately recognized Minerva McGonagall sitting with a man wearing the symbol of the Wizengamot embroidered on the lapel of his coat. The couple sat in uncomfortable silence, as if they were having a conversation that had just been interrupted. Moody felt it odd that McGonagall did not even acknowledge him when he waved to her. The man she was with turned back to regard the Auror. Moody narrowed his eyes but decided not to keep Jeff waiting any longer.

Moody reappeared on the other side of the chute located on level two at the Ministry of Magic. Jeff was there waiting, sporting an annoyed expression but said nothing as they continued in haste to the Aurors' offices. Once inside they walked past the maze of open desks. Moody took off his coat and threw it over his chair in passing. At the end the far wall, he picked up his copy of the morning's mission assignments from his mailbox and scanned the page, looking for his name. It was there that they found Reuben standing by the coffee maker. He was reading the morning reports as a cup levitated beside him; the spoon inside stirred slowly.

Reuben looked up from his reading to take his coffee in hand. "Managed to bring my partner back in one piece, did you?"

Jeff nodded. "It would've been sooner, but I had a devil of a time trying to find my hat this morning."

Reuben gave Moody a knowing glance and, after taking a sip of his coffee, said, "You had it in your locker the last place I saw. You might want to check there."

"Thanks for the tip," Jeff replied while he mulled over his copy of the report. "Sorry I can't stay long mates, but it looks like Angie and I are on the task force assigned to repel giant aggression in the Northern Country."

Moody snorted. "This bloke makes first rotation and suddenly he forgets all about his mates."

Before Jeff could respond, a young maiden walked up to the three of them. She tapped Moody on the shoulder; when he turned to greet her, she slapped him and walked away. The slap echoed, and everyone in the immediate vicinity stopped what they were doing to regard the stunned Auror. Moody rubbed his cheek in the same area where Holly had slapped him the previous night.

Jeff was the first to speak after everyone around returned to their duties. "I felt that from here."

"Another one of your 'temporary companions', Alastor?" Reuben said with a grin. "She's a little young, isn't she?"

Jeff frowned. "Please don't tell me you're shagging the interns, Alastor?"

"Of course not! What kind of cad do you two take me for?" Moody poured himself a coffee, acutely aware of Jeff and Reuben's continued stares which prompted him to elaborate. "It was her sister..." he took a sip, growing more annoyed as they continued to regard him, "...and I may have broken up with her via owl."

Reuben snorted. "Has a death wish, he does."

Moody pursed his lips when he read to the end of the first page. "Why aren't our names on the list, Reuben?"

"Probably because the maestro wants us properly debriefed."

"The codger certainly has a woody for standing on ceremony doesn't he?" Moody spat. He failed to notice when Jeff slinked away. "I mean, doing things by the book didn't exactly lead us to the Weasleys did it?"

Reuben averted his eyes. "Er, Alastor..."

Moody ignored Reuben and continued, "If the old warhorse didn't have his wand shoved so far up his arse, maybe we could've saved more lives." He paused when he noticed Reuben giving him the kill sign and gritted his teeth. "He's standing right behind me, isn't he?"

"No. Right beside you, actually." The maestro's contentious voice made Moody flinch. The elder wizard waited for Moody and Reuben to stand at attention, circling behind them. "It's good to see you two have graced us with your presence this morning. By the way, how did the Fletcher deal go last night? Did you track his supplier?"

Moody hesitated in answering, "Er... no, sir, on account of us cracking the recent string of kidnappings."

"Cracked?" the maestro said with a loud snort. "Well no matter. I've turned the case over to Prewett."

"But sir, that's our case," Reuben felt compelled point out.

"I have decided to divert your energies towards tasks better suited to your talents." The maestro handed them each a colored envelope and waited patiently as the young Aurors opened them to read the letters sealed within.

"The State of the Commonwealth Gala?" Moody read aloud. "I don't understand."

"M.O.M. wants to leverage the momentum gained by that stunt you two pulled last night in order to push her legislation platform through to the Wizengamot."

"So we're going to be paraded around like a couple of show ponies?" Reuben queried.

"Unfortunately, my nurse said I shouldn't engage in any frivolous activities on account of my injury," Moody said, massaging his affected shoulder.

Not to be outdone, Reuben added, "And I'm pretty sure I'll just be a bad influence all around."

The maestro held up a hand in warning. "I don't seem to recall giving you two a choice. I'll look forward to reading your final reports." Without addressing them further he left.

Reuben sighed and waited until the maestro was out or earshot to say, "If there was ever a third rotation, I guess we're in it now, brother."

Moody crumpled the invitation in his clenched fist. He followed the maestro out of the office, and he caught up to him waiting by the lifts. "Permission to speak candidly, Maestro." He took the maestro's raised eyebrow as assent and went on to say, "Have you given any consideration whatsoever to the fact that Ledley and I are the reason those two boys are alive?"

The maestro glared as he approached Moody in the still hallway. His hands remained clasped behind his back, and his voice was quiet yet stern. "That is precisely the reason I have deigned to keep you and Ledley on as Aurors." When he saw that Moody had nothing further to say, he entered the elevator and, as the doors started to slowly close, ended with, "Now, do yourself a favor: sober up, shave and take a proper date, like you have some semblance of normalcy."

Moody stood alone in the hallway for several moments, rereading the details of the crumpled invitation in his hands. He went back into the office quietly and found his way to his desk. Reuben, who sat across from Moody, eyed him as he took his seat, then continued dictating to the magic pen. Moody continued with his morning routine and picked up the Muggle newspaper on his desk. The headline read:

PEACE TALKS FAIL.

DEMILITARIZED ZONE ESTABLISHED ALONG THE 38th PARALLEL.

The words hardly registered, but he read them just the same. He sniffed the air at the scent of a familiar perfume.

Angie arrived soon after. She pulled one of the files from Moody's out-box and, as she skimmed it over, said, "Why do you two look so sullen? I would think you'd be pleased with yourselves."

Moody smiled at her practiced nonchalance. He retired from reading the paper and folded it atop his desk. "What are you doing slumming on this side of the wing, Angie?"

"Did the maestro not tell you that I have been asked to take on some of your slack?"

Reuben stopped dictating to comment, "Are you sure you're going to want our leftover case load?"

"Well, let's just say I'm glad that you two aren't part of the case load."

Moody eyed her suspiciously. "Is that your veiled way of saying that you're happy we came out of it alive and well?"

Angie rolled her eyes. "If that helps get you through the day, Alastor."

"I think Alastor is right." Reuben rose from his chair. He thoughtfully stood next to Angie, waiting for her to acknowledge him with her eyes. "You know what I like about you, Angie? You only have one pair of breasts."

Angie folded her arms. "Been playing with succubae again, have you boys?"

Reuben slapped Moody on the shoulder, ignoring his partner's painful yelp. "I told you it was 'succubae'."

Moody shrugged off the waves of pain, deciding instead to avail himself of a sudden opportunity as he rose to join them. "Angie, love, what are you doing tonight?"

Angie glanced at Moody over her shoulder in reply. "Not going to the State of the Commonwealth Gala."

"Crash and burn, brother." Reuben smirked. "Word spreads fast, doesn't it?"

"Honestly, you two blokes make it really hard for a girl to garner any sympathy for you."

"It's a defense mechanism, love." Reuben said, taking her hand. "Would you take that into consideration when you decide to be my date for the gala?"

Angie curled her lip to hide her amusement but relented under Reuben's gaze, "Alright."

"Hey, what the bloody hell, Angie?" Moody said, exasperated.

She merely shrugged in reply. "His plea was more pitiable than yours, Alastor."

"Hah!" Reuben teased at Moody. Upon introspection, however, his brow furrowed at her comment. He looked up when he saw Jeff enter the office.

"There you are, Angie." Jeff said, tipping his bowler in greeting. "The morning tactical meeting is about to start."

"Jeff, you found your hat." Reuben said with a lopsided grin.

"Yes. And you were right; it was in my locker all along. Thanks a ton, mate."

Moody slapped Jeff on the back and returned to his seat. "That's what friends are for, mate."

"Keep your chins up, gents. I'll see you at the gala tonight, yeah?" When Reuben released her hand, Angie turned to leave with Jeff. "Why does it smell like rotten clam chowder all of a sudden?"