Back in Black #11

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Thanks go to my beta, Southern Witch 69. And Crinna made me this amazing banner that's a Back in Black poster to paste over all the Watch Witch ones! Thank you, Crinna!

Back in Black #11

May 1st, 10:38 pm

"You should have seen it, Hermione!" Ginny laughs with glee. "Even before Lee started his speech, people were joining in and helping. There was this one older Witch – well, she took out her wand and started jinxing this young man wearing Pink robes with boils and blindness and a few other things I'd never even heard of! Turns out he'd been her Watch Wizard, and he'd made her life miserable by Apparating into her house at all hours of the night for the last two years."

I laugh. "And no one stopped her?"

She looks at me with an incredulous expression on her face. "Stop her? People wanted to join her!" Grinning mischievously, she continues, "But when she finally wound down, I did Stupefy him just to stop him whinging."

We're still laughing when Lee and the twins wander back from the drinks cabinet.

"Here, now – what's this? Fun without us?" Lee asks as he sets two firewhiskeys on the table in order to wrap his arms around Ginny from behind.

Fred hands me my glass and says, "Oi – none of that!"

"Sod off!" Ginny smirks. "You two are just envious because Kath and Suze are working tonight."

"What?" I say, looking back and forth between the twins. "You two are seeing someone ... er ... someones? And they're working at this time of night?"

"Yeah, well, until they get the bloody mess sorted –"

"– the Aurors are the only sodding thing besides Dad –"

"– that's really functioning at the Ministry right now."

"And only about a third of the Aurors –"

"– hadn't been turned by the effing Pink Party –"

"– so Susan and Katherine are going to be busy –"

"– for an effing long while."

"Wait – I can't get my head 'round this yet – just who are you seeing?"

Lee laughs and casts a playfully disparaging look at Fred and George. "It'll take these two forever, and believe me, you don't want to hear some of what they have to say."

Blushing brightly, which is really something to see on a Weasley, the twins look slightly abashed for about three seconds before grinning hugely.

"Go on, then, mate," prompts George.

"It was about two weeks after last year's May Day Speech, if I remember correctly – and I should remember correctly, as I've heard the story repeatedly and in great detail." Laughing, he slides one hand from Ginny to pick up and sip at his drink. "Two members of the Think Pink Brigade caught up with our boys here on the far end of Knockturn Alley. They handcuffed the troublesome two and Apparated them to an old abandoned building somewhere in Muggle London. The Think Pinkers then proceeded with questioning. After about seven hours, ginger fortitude caved, and these two admitted they'd pulled the stunt on May Day."

I look over to see the twins still grinning.

"Then, instead of taking them to the Ministry to turn them in, they ..." Lee's deep voice breaks into laughter, and his arm convulsively tightens around Ginny.

"They asked Fred and George," Ginny continues, but she's gasping out the words between bouts of hiccupping chuckles, "if they still knew ... how to do ... the Engorgement Charm!"

The laughter that erupts from me is shocking in its suddenness and intensity. My whole body shakes, and my eyes begin to water as I struggle to catch my breath.

Goddess! I'm glad I hadn't just taken a drink! I either would have sprayed it over everyone or aspirated it!

Once we've all calmed somewhat, a still grinning Fred adds, "And they didn't take the handcuffs off for a while –"

"– a long while. It was bloody brilliant!" seconds George.

Smiling hugely, the two look at one another, jittering anxiously. After a few moments, Fred flicks his head towards the door, and George nods in agreement before turning back to the rest of us to say, "Well, they might not be working –"

"– quite this late. So we'll just be off."

The chorus of farewells is a quick one – they appear to be in a bit of a hurry.

"I think that's our cue as well," Lee says, looking at Ginny with heat in his eyes.

She matches his gaze, grinning widely. "You may be right about that." Then she turns to me. "How about you, Hermione? You going to be okay?"

"Me? I'll be fine. Off with you, now." I make shooing hand gestures. "I'll just tell Snape we're all going, and then I'm off to bed myself."

Her grin, if anything, becomes even more mischievous. As I hug her goodbye, she says quietly enough that Lee can't hear, "I'll just bet you are."

Circe! Am I that obvious?

And is he even truly interested?

"Evil woman," I whisper back, and she chuckles.

Then I'm standing in the middle of what I've been thinking of as headquarters for the past month, but which suddenly morphs in my mind into Snape's sitting room.

Perhaps noticing the sudden silence, he emerges from his laboratory, where he'd gone to write up detailed notes on the effect of dispensing an aerosol form of his Veritaserum variant.

He's back to trousers and shirtsleeves again, everything in Black.

I feel the thrum of awareness run through me as strongly as it last did two weeks ago: his presence, his body.

His increasingly intense gaze.

Although I'm able to keep my breathing steady, my heart races.

"Ms. Granger, I was hoping to speak to you alone."

Oh, really?

He walks farther into the room. "While I can understand the celebratory mood you and the others are experiencing today, I feel that you are able to hear something more serious at this time."

The icy sensation of disappointment crashes over me.

Oh ... so he really was just flirting to break the Decrees.

Nodding, I set down the glass I've been toying with. The ice has melted enough to dilute the Ogden's to watery tastelessness anyways.

"We face a difficult time, Ms. Granger. The Wizengamot must be reinstated; the top-half of the Ministry re-staffed; the Auror division brought up to full strength. And all of this can only be accomplished if we have the right Minister – someone with the intelligence and determination to rebuild our world.

"For it is never enough to simply dispose of a despot – one must place a positive leader in their stead."

"So ... you're going to be Minister." My voice conveys the sinking sensation of my stomach.

Was this all just some hungry grab for power?

He snorts. "Hardly. Even if my true loyalties were revealed in the Final Battle, I will always be known as Dumbledore's killer.

"No, Ms. Granger, what the people will need to recover their sense of self after this mind-numbing tragedy of an administration is a Minister they trust, admire, and like implicitly." He pauses to quirk an eyebrow before dropping his voice. "Such as a War Hero."

War Hero? Besides Snape, there's only Arthur left alive of the older generation – he's been helping Back in Black all along, but –?

"A War Hero," he continues, "whom the masses observed personally defeat the Pink Lord."

"Me?" It comes out as a squeak of shock.

"Do you know anyone else to whom I could be referring?"

I shake my head briefly.

So he plans to use me, does he?

I snort.

Not bloody likely!

I feel my facial expression harden and the pulse of anger run through my veins. "So you expect to be the power behind the Minister?"

He moves closer, smirk in place. "Behind, on top of, underneath – I think you'll find, Ms. Granger, that I am able to enjoy multiple positions."

Goddess!

Ire dissipating rapidly, I feel my own smirk emerge as a different kind of flush runs through my body. "All right, then – the power underneath the Minister."

He laughs without any sarcastic undertone. "Do not think me foolish enough to assume you will be controlled thusly. In fact, I would have no desire to do so if you were. It is readily apparent that the only reason I was able to persuade you to join the resistance was due to your own desire to overthrow the pastel menace. And within a month of becoming a member of Back in Black, you triumphed as a leader."

His voice drops to a lower, deeper register. "You are a force to be reckoned with."

I take a half step forward and reach out to run an index finger down the front of his frock coat. "And do you feel up to reckoning with such a force?"

His half step brings us only inches apart as his hand raises to clasp mine to his chest. "I shall do my damnedest."

I tip my head up and meet his intense gaze. "I've seen your damnedest."

He leans forward. "Yes?"

I smirk slightly. "As long as you've got expert direction from above, it's good." As our lips whisper over each other's in a first, electric kiss that thrums through my entire being, I murmur, "Very good indeed."

Fade to Black

AN: Please review – it'll keep me thinking Black!

Direct influences include: 1984 (novel), V for Vendetta (graphic novel and film), and Brazil (film).