• Title – I Open at the Close • Author name – Vazy • Rating - PG-13 • Disclaimer – I neither own any the Scooby gang or the Harry Potter characters. That pleasure belongs to Joss Whedon and J. K. Rowling • Feedback- I crave feedback as much as Angelus craves blood. • Summary- With the wizarding world in dark times as He-who-must-not-be-named causes mass devastation, happiness still manages to bloom. The story of Willow Evans and her family's lives in the middle of a war. • All bow to my amazing beta, indigokane • Happy Late Easter!
Chapter 3 The crackle of the coffee machine was the first sound Willow heard. Next came the awareness of a niggling pain in the back of her neck and the fact that during the night she’d pretty much fallen off the sofa. Her upper body lay sprawled across the floor, with her legs still tossed above her on the cushions. Willow kept her eyes closed not bothering to move. Other sounds began to trickle down to her; Tara’s soft footsteps, the chink of mugs and the splash of water. Sighing Willow cracked an eye open. Not much light filtered in through the drawn curtains, taking a wild guess she figured it was still early and the sky outside was a sickly mix of grey’s. Willow reluctantly pushed herself up onto her elbows. It turned out the stiffness wasn’t limited to her neck; it spread all the way down her spine. Groaning, Willow swiveled and pushed herself to her feet. Twisting around for a moment, trying to realign her back, she moved towards the smell of coffee. The kitchen of the flat was small and brightly colored. Tara sat perched on a stool at the breakfast bar, her blue eyes skimming across the Daily Prophet, mug in hand. Without glancing up, she smiled lopsidedly. “Morning Sleepy-head, how’s the back?” Willow glared balefully at Tara as she got herself a giant mug for coffee, filling it she hopped onto the stool next to her flatmate. “You could have done Something, y’know Tare.” Willow muttered, before downing half her mug, ignoring the scalding hot liquid. “Aw, you know I would Will, but I didn’t want to wake you. Its not even seven yet.” Tara’s eyes flicked up from her reading to smile softly at the red head. Willow choked on her mouthful of caffeine. “Not even…?” Willow moaned pitifully. “Why did you make coffee, you know coffee wakes me!” Willow lay her head on the counter, ignoring Tara’s stifled giggle. “I know, you and your freakish coffee nose, but I need the c-caffine. I’m due at Mungo’s in-” Tara glanced at the clock on the wall, “Half-an-hour.” Willow nodded groggily as she sipped her coffee slower. “I don’t have to be in until late, I also may not be back tonight-” A blonde eyebrow was raised in question. “Misson-y thing. Scrimgeour made a team up of us to go out on some wild goose chase lead he got. Likely scenario? We end up sitting in some woods in the pouring rain all night, or a run-down pub in the middle of nowhere, where the guys insist on hitting on me. Stupid Scrimgeour, man works us overtime doing nothing.” Willow pouted heavily, before flicking her wand to summon the coffee pot over. Tara smiled sympathetically. With the wizarding world in utter mayhem due to Voldemort, both the Auror office and St. Mungos were making their employees work double time. “J-jackson is away so I-I’m helping in Spell Damage t-today. It’s c-crazy in there at the moment, all the-the…” Tara trailed off a pained expression on her face. Willow nodded gravely, she was faced with what the death eaters were doing daily. With a shuddering breath Tara set her mug down. “Are you flooing or apparating?” Willow asked over the rim of her mug, green eyes watching Tara move to the sink. “Floo. I need to see if Oz is still there, h-he was keeping an eye on Mrs. Bennett for me over night.” As she passed Willow in her seat, Tara brushed her fingertips over soft red hair and Willow closed her eyes letting out a sound akin to a purr. Willow enjoyed the closeness she and Tara shared, all the little touches and gestures. Smiling happily to herself, Willow waved her wand to get the dishes and mugs to clean themselves. Yawning and scratching at her mussed hair, she grabbed an apple. Willow wasn’t due at the offices until the afternoon. Aurors schedules were generally pretty solid but when they had missions the hours got crazy, that meant either all-nighters or being away from home for days on end. Glancing at the clock again Willow groaned at the early hour. “I’m going back to bed.” She muttered to herself. *** ? The Auror offices were situated on the second floor of the ministry. They weren’t very impressive. Cream paint, along with tasteful wooden floors; or as tasteful as the cheap wood could be. There were several cubicles in one corner, which were occupied by the senior Aurors, and great banks of wooden desks for the rest. Wood seemed the theme in this department. Off the main room were several smaller rooms, hidden behind these doors were the more exciting rooms. The head of the department’s office, the strategy rooms, training rooms, break room and the most exciting of all, the dark little room which held shelves upon shelves of books and the cabinets with all the paperwork. Willow squinted through the water that dripped through her fringe; the weather that had seemed lovely had turned dark. Slumping down into her desk hair she studied her desk calendar. Late October. She was surprised the good weather had held as long as it had; Yesterday had been glorious. That was the last of the sun that they would be getting until July or even August; sometimes Willow just wished she could live in California were the temperature was above 20°C more often than not. Groaning, Willow’s eyes wandered over to stack of paperwork that was on her desk. She’d neglected to do it yesterday so had come into the office early to get it done. After a couple hours of hastily filled out paperwork, someone rapped their knuckles loudly on the wood in front of her. When Willow glanced up, she was met by a mismatched set of eyes. One brown and one electric blue, whizzing round in its socket. “Damn it Moody! That thing still freaks me out, couldn’t you have just gotten a normal one?” Willow snapped, a headache having wormed its way into the front of her brain as she’d worked. Moody let out a grunt before seizing Willow’s wrist and pulling her to her feet. “Are you ready Evans? Scrimgeour wants us out of here as soon as possible.” Willow nodded rubbing her wrist and smiling ruefully. She knew Moody hadn’t meant to hurt her, he just wanted to get this over with. As always he disapproved of Rufus Scrimgeour’s plans. “Where’s Frank? He’s meant to be on this damned wild goose chase with us isn’t he?” Moody nodded, his blue eye invisible as it looked out through the back of his head. “Stop that! Jeez Moody!” Willow slapped him lightly on the arm. The eye whizzed back to the front and at that moment Frank Longbottom chose to pop up over Moody’s shoulder, grinning. “We ready to get this show on the road?” He chuckled. Willow nodded, spinning on her heels to grab her coat that lay over the back of her chair, before glancing at the two older wizards. “Where is this show headed anyway? I mean I just got told ‘Evans you’re working on a grave shift tomorrow’ and then off ol’ Rufus hopped.” Willow glanced between the two wizards nervously, she hated all-nighters. Frank laughed at Willow’s babble, Moody just shrugged before heading for the exit. At nearly 22 Willow was still fairly new to the Auror game, she’d been out of school for three years and had managed to pass the Auror exams early. “So where…?” Willow asked again as the trio made their way through the golden grilles of the lift, which shut behind them. “We’re after Nott,” Frank explained kindly, seeing as there was no explanation coming from Alastair Moody anytime soon, “We’ve had some leads on his location, lots of reports from around Luton, that along with the uh… Muggle Deaths, has pretty much confirmed it. We’re there to search the area and check the places he’s been spotted. Easy right?” Frank grinned easily at the young woman.
Willow nodded jerkily. Nott was a big deal. Willow frowned, she hated Nott. The man was a known Muggle torturer, even more so than the average death eaters anyway. Willow thought of her parents, both of whom had passed away. Her Dad had died of a heart attack the year she left Hogwarts, and her Mum had passed away last year. Willow was just glad that she and Lily hadn’t lost them under more gruesome circumstances. The sound of the main floor being announced in a cheery voice, broke Willow from her train of thought. Moody and Frank both strode out of the lift, and Willow scurried after them, her shorter legs struggling to keep up.
As they left the ministry, Willow tugged her coat tighter around herself. It was already pitch black outside and rain was hammering down once again. The pavement reflected the streetlamps making everything glow yellow and the leaves that yesterday had seemed to be on trees, coated the streets in a slippery bed. Willow wished she could use a spell to keep from getting wet, or alternately an umbrella, as they moved out into the night. Tonight was going to be a long night.
_________________ And all my life, I looked for you For arms that I could fall into - With You Around, YellowCard
Last edited by vazy on Sat Sep 10, 2011 3:34 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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