Fic: Truth Twisters [2/4]
To: itsbeenvery aka geewhiz
Title: Truth Twisters [Chapter 2: Troubling Times]
Author: aggiebell90
Pairing: Harry/Ginny, Ron, Percy, George, plus a bad guy I'd rather not mention yet. :P
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~10,000 overall; ~2877 this chapter
Summary: A break-in, a missing ledger, and a new Wheeze add up to a mystery that needs solving. Good thing Ginny's on the case.
Author/Artist's Notes: geewhiz , please forgive me for taking so long with this. I got caught up in an experiment from hell at work (today's the first since April 10th that I haven't had to go to the lab), and my writing time just disappeared. *grovels at your feet*
Many thanks to queenb23more , rdprice29 , mollywheezy , and sherylyn for their super-speedy betaing skills.
Chapter 1: Perplexing Puzzle
Chapter 2:Troubling Times
Chapter 3: Confounding Conundrum
Epilogue: Telling Truths
"A what?" Harry asked blankly.
"An arcanum arcanorum," Percy said. "A secret of secrets. A mystery of mysteries."
"Or," George said, "a burglary."
"Well, yes," Percy said. "That too."
Ginny rummaged around in her bag and pulled out a quill and some parchment. "Percy," she said, "when was the last time you saw the ledger?"
"Last night, around half-eight. We closed up as normal, and I brought the till back here to count while George and Ron did the inventory and restocked out front."
"And did you notice anything unusual?"
"No," he said, "nothing." He looked to George for confirmation. "I said the password to unlock the desk-"
"Wait," Ginny interrupted, "there's a password?"
"What do you take us for, Ginny, idiots? Of course there's a password," George said. "We learned 'constant vigilance' from Moody, same as you did." There was a moment of silence as they all remembered the fallen Auror.
"Who knows the password?" Harry asked, breaking the silence.
"Trying to do my job for me, Harry?" Ginny asked.
He shrugged. "No, not really. Just curious, mostly."
"Hmm," she said as she turned to her brothers. "It's a good question, though. Who does know the password?
"George and Ron," Percy said, "and me, of course. That's it."
"Did I hear my name? You lot aren't talking about me, are you?" Ron asked as he entered the room and dumped the containers of food on the table. He nodded at Harry and Ginny. "I brought you two some of that chicken you like, just in case…" He looked around the room, his eyes narrowing. "What's wrong?"
"Did you notice anything strange last night, Ron?" Ginny asked. "Anything…or anyone…out of place?"
"No, why?" he asked, sounding confused.
"The ledger's missing," George said.
Ron blinked. "Yeah, right," he said. "Good one, George. Pull the other one, why don't you?" He reached into one of the boxes on the table and pulled out a piece of meat, popping it into his mouth. "Snoway Percy'd 'oose the leger," he said thickly. He swallowed the bite he'd taken. "I mean, c'mon. He's Percy. He never loses anything."
"While I appreciate your faith in me, Ronald," Percy said stiffly, "I have to admit that what George says is true. I can't find the ledger."
Ron looked gobsmacked, Ginny noticed, but 'gobsmacked' was a fair description for how she felt, too. She could just hide it better than her brother.
"Look, I don't know what's going on here," Ginny said, "but it's a little suspicious. I'd like to start up a proper investigation, if that's all right with you?" She looked at her brothers in turn and was relieved when they all nodded.
"All right, then, let's start at the beginning," she said, charming her quill to take notes while she continued questioning her brothers.
Twenty-five minutes later, she still felt like she hadn't made any progress. Percy had last seen the ledger when he'd put it way the night before, none of them had seen anything or anyone out of place, and none of them could think of anyone specific who might want revenge on the three brothers (she conveniently ignored Harry's "Other than the random Death Eaters who are still roaming the countryside?" response).
"Is there anything else missing or out of place?"
"Not on first examination," Percy replied, "but we'll have to give it all a closer look to be sure."
"All right," Ginny said, gathering her parchment and the quill. "I'm going to go to the Ministry and do some checking...maybe I'll see if there have been any other reports of these kinds of break-ins." She gave Harry and her brothers a stern look. "Don't touch anything else. I'm going to want to come over again tomorrow and examine the room more closely. In fact-" she looked at George-"it might be good if you could close tomorrow so my partner and I can investigate without interference."
"You want us to close?" George asked.
"Do you want to catch whoever broke in?"
"Yeah, but we'll lose hundreds of Galleons if we stay closed tomorrow. Can't you just…work around us or something?"
"George," she said, trying to be patient as she explained, "we're going to need access to the whole shop."
"You're going to bring that ponce here?" Harry asked sullenly, interrupting her conversation with George.
"Of course I'm going to bring him with me," Ginny said. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Because he's an arse?" George asked.
She couldn't argue with that point. "That may be, but he's got to be here."
Ron looked belligerent. "I don't want that plonker in my-our-shop," he said.
"He's my partner," Ginny explained, exasperated. "I don't like him any more than you do, but I have to include him if I'm investigating something."
"Fine," Ron said, crossing his arms. "But he better not say anything nasty while he's here. I won't be held responsible if he does."
"Ron," Ginny warned.
"He's an Auror, Ron," Percy said. "He's coming here to help."
"You obviously never had to deal with him then, if you're saying that," Harry said. Ginny raised her eyebrow at him. "Don't worry. We won't cause any trouble," he reassured her.
"Don't touch anything," she reminded them again, fixing each of them with her sternest don't-mess-with-me-because-I-can-take-you-down look. "As a matter of fact, you lot need to leave now. That way, I know you won't disturb anything tonight."
"But-"
"No buts, Ron," she said. "Go home. Try to remember if you've seen anything suspicious. I'll talk to you in the morning."
Ginny stood outside the shop with Harry, watching George finish the locking-up process. She decided she didn't want to know what the final spell he put up did. The different colours streaming from his wand were quite scary looking.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Harry asked. He thrust his hands deep into his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. "To the Ministry?"
She patted his arm. "Thanks for the offer, Harry, but no. I need to go by myself. There're places I'll need to go where you won't be allowed."
"If you're sure, then," he said, frowning a little.
"I'm sure. See you in the morning."
"Yeah," he said. "See you."
*
She was exhausted. She'd been there all night, poring over reports, trying to find some sort of clue as to who had stolen the ledger. The problem was that while she knew Percy would never lose something that important, her supervisor didn't. He wouldn't let her officially open a case until she had irrefutable proof that there really was a case to open.
She looked at her notes, rereading the things her quill had written down from her interview with her brothers: (1) Percy was sure he'd put the ledger back in the drawer and locked it, like he habitually did every evening; (2) there was a password to the drawer in addition to the normal locking spells, and only three people knew what the password was; (3) George, Percy, or Ron hadn't seen anyone unusual in the back rooms of the shop recently; (4) there was nothing else missing or out of place as far as her brothers could tell. Taking out her quill, she added a few more questions and notes of her own.
Alarm???
List of customers making purchases in the past week? Month?
Who has access to back rooms?
Any new employees?
Follow the Galleons
Satisfied with the progress she'd made (she at least had something resembling a starting point for when she got back to the shop), she rolled up the parchment and locked it in her desk, stretching to ease the ache in her back and neck. Some of her hair fell in front of her eyes when she did, and she wrinkled her nose when she saw it, limp and greasy after twenty-four hours. "Ergh. I need a shower."
She returned from the changing rooms after a refreshing (and distracting-she kept finding her mind drifting off to Harry and the figure he cut as he walked across the pub the previous night) shower, and a quick nap, to find her partner sitting in her chair, his feet up on her desk.
"Weasley," he drawled.
"Get your feet off my desk," she said, "and get out of my chair." She watched as he gave her an arrogant look, arching his eyebrow as he ever-so-slowly eased himself out of her chair and onto the corner of the desk.
"What do you want?" she said, sitting in her recently vacated chair and straightening the parchment on her desk.
"Why do I have to want something?" he asked. "I'm your partner; maybe I'm just here for a friendly chat."
She gave him a tired look and checked the clock on the wall. "Give me a little credit," she said. "It's half-seven and you're here when you don't have to be for at least another thirty minutes. And we don't chat. Ever." Besides, his voice had been anything but friendly. Condescending, arrogant, and patronising, yes, but definitely not friendly.
He sat in the chair opposite her desk. "What are we working on today, Weasley?"
She bit her lip, debating on whether or not to tell him about the break-in at the shop. The previous night, she'd been so adamant about bringing him into the investigation, but now, when it came down to it, she wasn't sure it was the best idea. Eventually, she made up her mind and passed the file over to him, watching as he read.
"So, your incompetent brothers managed to get themselves into trouble again, and you want to get them out."
"They're not incompetent," she said, grinding her teeth.
"Could've fooled me."
She gave him a dirty look. "You know what? Never mind. Give that back to me." She tried to take the file out of his hand, but he wouldn't let her. "I don't know why I ever thought you'd help. Ron and Harry were right. You are an arse."
He gave her a hard look. "Why do you think the ledger was stolen and not that your brother just mislaid it somewhere?" he asked, flipping the file back open and leaning back in the chair.
"It's Percy," she said simply. "If it had been Ron who couldn't find the ledger, I probably wouldn't have batted an eye, but Percy… Percy doesn't lose things. He can probably tell you exactly how many pairs of socks he has, what colour they are, which ones need washing, and where they all are. There's no way he misplaced the ledger. I told them to close for the day, so the two of us could do a proper investigation."
He nonchalantly tossed the file onto her desk. "And you're so sure he didn't make a mistake and misplace it?" She nodded. "Don't know how you're going to prove it, Weasley. He's only human. Even perfect Percy can make a mistake."
"That's why I thought we'd go to WWW this morning and do a more thorough investigation."
"Can't, sorry," he said, sounding not at all sorry. "Robards pulled me and put me on the Greene case. I'm to report to Samson at eight."
"Of course," she said, trying not to sound bitter. "Congratulations." It was essentially a promotion for him, but there she was, being left behind (again), even though they'd been working together for almost a year. She'd known it wasn't going to be easy, being a woman in the Auror Corps, and she'd always had to work twice as hard as her male counterparts to prove her worth. She'd thought Robards had got past her femaleness and had started to see her as a valuable part of the team, but apparently she'd been wrong. It didn't help that her partner didn't only have the advantage of being male; he also had connections and no felt guilt whatsoever in using those connections to get ahead, which was something she could never bring herself to do. She wanted her achievements to be on her own merits and not because she was Arthur Weasley's daughter or Ron Weasley's sister or Harry Potter's…friend.
He smirked. "Maybe someday Robards will pull you off these petty crimes and let you do something important."
"You're going to be late," she said pointedly, ignoring his comment and looking at the clock on the wall of her cubicle.
"So I am," he said. "See you around, Weasley," he said, and, adjusting his cuffs, sauntered out though the doorway.
*
When she arrived at the shop, she found Harry in the front with her brothers, helping them inventory the items on the shelf. He grinned at her. "We figured we ought to get something productive done, even if the shop can't open today," he said. "Besides, I didn't want to leave George and Ron alone for this." His eyebrows narrowed as he looked behind her, presumably trying to spy her partner. "Erm. Where's the git?"
"Got himself promoted, the bastard," she said. "So it's just me for now." She pulled out her parchment and self-inking quill. "You lot didn't touch anything else, did you?" she asked.
"'Did we touch anything?' she says," George mimicked, rolling his eyes and clasping his hands to his chest melodramatically. "Why, Ginevra, I'm shocked and appalled that you would think so lowly of your brothers. Or of young Mr Potter, here."
"Shut it, you git," Ginny said, grinning. George always did know how to make her smile.
"We did as you asked," Percy said. "Nobody's been into the back room since we left last night."
"Good boys," Ginny said, smiling as she made her way through the doorway and into the office.
"'Good boys?' What are we, three?" Ron grumbled.
"Are you asking about your physical age or your mental age?" Ginny asked. "Because physically, no, of course you're not three." Especially not Harry, she thought. "Mentally...well, there's another question, yeah?"
"Ha ha. Aren't you funny?" Ron said.
"Of course I am," Ginny said. "But that's neither here nor there right now. Right now, we need to get to the bottom of this. You lot stay out here while I work, understand?"
"But-"
"No buts, Ron," she said. "Go finish your inventory or something."
"Fine."
"Fine," she said, catching Harry's eye over Ron's head. He winked at her and the butterflies in her stomach fluttered to life.
She worked for about fifteen minutes before turning to yell at the boys to have them join her, only to find the four of them crammed into the doorway, watching what she was doing.
She sighed. "Come on in, you lot," she said. "I didn't find anything obvious, but maybe one of you will notice something." She leaned against the desk and pulled out her notes, rearranging them into chronological order, while surreptitiously watching Harry from under her fringe.
Ron and Percy kept going back to the desk drawer, still looking, she presumed, for the missing ledger. George was over at the workbench, examining ingredients and supplies.
And Harry...Harry was wandering along the bookshelf, running his fingers across the spines of the books there. Every once in a while, he'd stop, and a pensive expression would wash across his face.
"Huh," Harry said.
"What?" Ginny asked.
"It's just… This is just a little weird, isn't it?" he said, pointing to the shelf against the back wall.
Ginny looked, trying to see the shelf with fresh eyes. There were rows upon rows of notebooks, each colour-coded and labelled with a series of dates, representing the time the books had been in use.
"See," he said, "all of the books are clustered together by colour. Except for this one," he explained, pointing at a book with a purple binding surrounded by several blue books-the colours were very similar, but there was definitely a difference. "And look, it's upside down, and the date's out of order. See? The blue ones are from last year, and the purple ones are dated this year."
Ginny moved closer to the shelf and stood next to Harry. "You're right, Harry. Good catch. What are these?" she asked, turning to George.
"Notebooks," he said. "We keep records of all our experiments in them so we can go back and repeat-"
"Or not," Ron interrupted.
"Or not, if something didn't work," George agreed, "what we did."
Ginny nodded, impressed. She'd never have thought that George or Ron would even think about keeping notes of everything they did, but judging by the number of notebooks on the shelves, it looked like they'd been very meticulous.
"What's in this one?" she asked, pulling the single purple book carefully from the shelf.
"That's last month's," Ron said, checking the date on the spine, "so whatever we worked on last month. There's a recipe for Belching Blossoms, I know, and I think some preliminary notes for the Truth Twisters."
Ginny nodded absentmindedly and started paging through the notebook. "Why wasn't it in the right spot?"
Ron shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe one of us looked at it and wasn't paying attention when we put it away."
"Maybe," Ginny said. "But…"
"But?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, but," she said, holding the open book out so everyone could see it, "someone's torn some pages out."
End chapter 2
Title: Truth Twisters [Chapter 2: Troubling Times]
Author: aggiebell90
Pairing: Harry/Ginny, Ron, Percy, George, plus a bad guy I'd rather not mention yet. :P
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~10,000 overall; ~2877 this chapter
Summary: A break-in, a missing ledger, and a new Wheeze add up to a mystery that needs solving. Good thing Ginny's on the case.
Author/Artist's Notes: geewhiz , please forgive me for taking so long with this. I got caught up in an experiment from hell at work (today's the first since April 10th that I haven't had to go to the lab), and my writing time just disappeared. *grovels at your feet*
Many thanks to queenb23more , rdprice29 , mollywheezy , and sherylyn for their super-speedy betaing skills.
Chapter 1: Perplexing Puzzle
Chapter 2:Troubling Times
Chapter 3: Confounding Conundrum
Epilogue: Telling Truths
"A what?" Harry asked blankly.
"An arcanum arcanorum," Percy said. "A secret of secrets. A mystery of mysteries."
"Or," George said, "a burglary."
"Well, yes," Percy said. "That too."
Ginny rummaged around in her bag and pulled out a quill and some parchment. "Percy," she said, "when was the last time you saw the ledger?"
"Last night, around half-eight. We closed up as normal, and I brought the till back here to count while George and Ron did the inventory and restocked out front."
"And did you notice anything unusual?"
"No," he said, "nothing." He looked to George for confirmation. "I said the password to unlock the desk-"
"Wait," Ginny interrupted, "there's a password?"
"What do you take us for, Ginny, idiots? Of course there's a password," George said. "We learned 'constant vigilance' from Moody, same as you did." There was a moment of silence as they all remembered the fallen Auror.
"Who knows the password?" Harry asked, breaking the silence.
"Trying to do my job for me, Harry?" Ginny asked.
He shrugged. "No, not really. Just curious, mostly."
"Hmm," she said as she turned to her brothers. "It's a good question, though. Who does know the password?
"George and Ron," Percy said, "and me, of course. That's it."
"Did I hear my name? You lot aren't talking about me, are you?" Ron asked as he entered the room and dumped the containers of food on the table. He nodded at Harry and Ginny. "I brought you two some of that chicken you like, just in case…" He looked around the room, his eyes narrowing. "What's wrong?"
"Did you notice anything strange last night, Ron?" Ginny asked. "Anything…or anyone…out of place?"
"No, why?" he asked, sounding confused.
"The ledger's missing," George said.
Ron blinked. "Yeah, right," he said. "Good one, George. Pull the other one, why don't you?" He reached into one of the boxes on the table and pulled out a piece of meat, popping it into his mouth. "Snoway Percy'd 'oose the leger," he said thickly. He swallowed the bite he'd taken. "I mean, c'mon. He's Percy. He never loses anything."
"While I appreciate your faith in me, Ronald," Percy said stiffly, "I have to admit that what George says is true. I can't find the ledger."
Ron looked gobsmacked, Ginny noticed, but 'gobsmacked' was a fair description for how she felt, too. She could just hide it better than her brother.
"Look, I don't know what's going on here," Ginny said, "but it's a little suspicious. I'd like to start up a proper investigation, if that's all right with you?" She looked at her brothers in turn and was relieved when they all nodded.
"All right, then, let's start at the beginning," she said, charming her quill to take notes while she continued questioning her brothers.
Twenty-five minutes later, she still felt like she hadn't made any progress. Percy had last seen the ledger when he'd put it way the night before, none of them had seen anything or anyone out of place, and none of them could think of anyone specific who might want revenge on the three brothers (she conveniently ignored Harry's "Other than the random Death Eaters who are still roaming the countryside?" response).
"Is there anything else missing or out of place?"
"Not on first examination," Percy replied, "but we'll have to give it all a closer look to be sure."
"All right," Ginny said, gathering her parchment and the quill. "I'm going to go to the Ministry and do some checking...maybe I'll see if there have been any other reports of these kinds of break-ins." She gave Harry and her brothers a stern look. "Don't touch anything else. I'm going to want to come over again tomorrow and examine the room more closely. In fact-" she looked at George-"it might be good if you could close tomorrow so my partner and I can investigate without interference."
"You want us to close?" George asked.
"Do you want to catch whoever broke in?"
"Yeah, but we'll lose hundreds of Galleons if we stay closed tomorrow. Can't you just…work around us or something?"
"George," she said, trying to be patient as she explained, "we're going to need access to the whole shop."
"You're going to bring that ponce here?" Harry asked sullenly, interrupting her conversation with George.
"Of course I'm going to bring him with me," Ginny said. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Because he's an arse?" George asked.
She couldn't argue with that point. "That may be, but he's got to be here."
Ron looked belligerent. "I don't want that plonker in my-our-shop," he said.
"He's my partner," Ginny explained, exasperated. "I don't like him any more than you do, but I have to include him if I'm investigating something."
"Fine," Ron said, crossing his arms. "But he better not say anything nasty while he's here. I won't be held responsible if he does."
"Ron," Ginny warned.
"He's an Auror, Ron," Percy said. "He's coming here to help."
"You obviously never had to deal with him then, if you're saying that," Harry said. Ginny raised her eyebrow at him. "Don't worry. We won't cause any trouble," he reassured her.
"Don't touch anything," she reminded them again, fixing each of them with her sternest don't-mess-with-me-because-I-can-take-you-down look. "As a matter of fact, you lot need to leave now. That way, I know you won't disturb anything tonight."
"But-"
"No buts, Ron," she said. "Go home. Try to remember if you've seen anything suspicious. I'll talk to you in the morning."
Ginny stood outside the shop with Harry, watching George finish the locking-up process. She decided she didn't want to know what the final spell he put up did. The different colours streaming from his wand were quite scary looking.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Harry asked. He thrust his hands deep into his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. "To the Ministry?"
She patted his arm. "Thanks for the offer, Harry, but no. I need to go by myself. There're places I'll need to go where you won't be allowed."
"If you're sure, then," he said, frowning a little.
"I'm sure. See you in the morning."
"Yeah," he said. "See you."
*
She was exhausted. She'd been there all night, poring over reports, trying to find some sort of clue as to who had stolen the ledger. The problem was that while she knew Percy would never lose something that important, her supervisor didn't. He wouldn't let her officially open a case until she had irrefutable proof that there really was a case to open.
She looked at her notes, rereading the things her quill had written down from her interview with her brothers: (1) Percy was sure he'd put the ledger back in the drawer and locked it, like he habitually did every evening; (2) there was a password to the drawer in addition to the normal locking spells, and only three people knew what the password was; (3) George, Percy, or Ron hadn't seen anyone unusual in the back rooms of the shop recently; (4) there was nothing else missing or out of place as far as her brothers could tell. Taking out her quill, she added a few more questions and notes of her own.
Alarm???
List of customers making purchases in the past week? Month?
Who has access to back rooms?
Any new employees?
Follow the Galleons
Satisfied with the progress she'd made (she at least had something resembling a starting point for when she got back to the shop), she rolled up the parchment and locked it in her desk, stretching to ease the ache in her back and neck. Some of her hair fell in front of her eyes when she did, and she wrinkled her nose when she saw it, limp and greasy after twenty-four hours. "Ergh. I need a shower."
She returned from the changing rooms after a refreshing (and distracting-she kept finding her mind drifting off to Harry and the figure he cut as he walked across the pub the previous night) shower, and a quick nap, to find her partner sitting in her chair, his feet up on her desk.
"Weasley," he drawled.
"Get your feet off my desk," she said, "and get out of my chair." She watched as he gave her an arrogant look, arching his eyebrow as he ever-so-slowly eased himself out of her chair and onto the corner of the desk.
"What do you want?" she said, sitting in her recently vacated chair and straightening the parchment on her desk.
"Why do I have to want something?" he asked. "I'm your partner; maybe I'm just here for a friendly chat."
She gave him a tired look and checked the clock on the wall. "Give me a little credit," she said. "It's half-seven and you're here when you don't have to be for at least another thirty minutes. And we don't chat. Ever." Besides, his voice had been anything but friendly. Condescending, arrogant, and patronising, yes, but definitely not friendly.
He sat in the chair opposite her desk. "What are we working on today, Weasley?"
She bit her lip, debating on whether or not to tell him about the break-in at the shop. The previous night, she'd been so adamant about bringing him into the investigation, but now, when it came down to it, she wasn't sure it was the best idea. Eventually, she made up her mind and passed the file over to him, watching as he read.
"So, your incompetent brothers managed to get themselves into trouble again, and you want to get them out."
"They're not incompetent," she said, grinding her teeth.
"Could've fooled me."
She gave him a dirty look. "You know what? Never mind. Give that back to me." She tried to take the file out of his hand, but he wouldn't let her. "I don't know why I ever thought you'd help. Ron and Harry were right. You are an arse."
He gave her a hard look. "Why do you think the ledger was stolen and not that your brother just mislaid it somewhere?" he asked, flipping the file back open and leaning back in the chair.
"It's Percy," she said simply. "If it had been Ron who couldn't find the ledger, I probably wouldn't have batted an eye, but Percy… Percy doesn't lose things. He can probably tell you exactly how many pairs of socks he has, what colour they are, which ones need washing, and where they all are. There's no way he misplaced the ledger. I told them to close for the day, so the two of us could do a proper investigation."
He nonchalantly tossed the file onto her desk. "And you're so sure he didn't make a mistake and misplace it?" She nodded. "Don't know how you're going to prove it, Weasley. He's only human. Even perfect Percy can make a mistake."
"That's why I thought we'd go to WWW this morning and do a more thorough investigation."
"Can't, sorry," he said, sounding not at all sorry. "Robards pulled me and put me on the Greene case. I'm to report to Samson at eight."
"Of course," she said, trying not to sound bitter. "Congratulations." It was essentially a promotion for him, but there she was, being left behind (again), even though they'd been working together for almost a year. She'd known it wasn't going to be easy, being a woman in the Auror Corps, and she'd always had to work twice as hard as her male counterparts to prove her worth. She'd thought Robards had got past her femaleness and had started to see her as a valuable part of the team, but apparently she'd been wrong. It didn't help that her partner didn't only have the advantage of being male; he also had connections and no felt guilt whatsoever in using those connections to get ahead, which was something she could never bring herself to do. She wanted her achievements to be on her own merits and not because she was Arthur Weasley's daughter or Ron Weasley's sister or Harry Potter's…friend.
He smirked. "Maybe someday Robards will pull you off these petty crimes and let you do something important."
"You're going to be late," she said pointedly, ignoring his comment and looking at the clock on the wall of her cubicle.
"So I am," he said. "See you around, Weasley," he said, and, adjusting his cuffs, sauntered out though the doorway.
*
When she arrived at the shop, she found Harry in the front with her brothers, helping them inventory the items on the shelf. He grinned at her. "We figured we ought to get something productive done, even if the shop can't open today," he said. "Besides, I didn't want to leave George and Ron alone for this." His eyebrows narrowed as he looked behind her, presumably trying to spy her partner. "Erm. Where's the git?"
"Got himself promoted, the bastard," she said. "So it's just me for now." She pulled out her parchment and self-inking quill. "You lot didn't touch anything else, did you?" she asked.
"'Did we touch anything?' she says," George mimicked, rolling his eyes and clasping his hands to his chest melodramatically. "Why, Ginevra, I'm shocked and appalled that you would think so lowly of your brothers. Or of young Mr Potter, here."
"Shut it, you git," Ginny said, grinning. George always did know how to make her smile.
"We did as you asked," Percy said. "Nobody's been into the back room since we left last night."
"Good boys," Ginny said, smiling as she made her way through the doorway and into the office.
"'Good boys?' What are we, three?" Ron grumbled.
"Are you asking about your physical age or your mental age?" Ginny asked. "Because physically, no, of course you're not three." Especially not Harry, she thought. "Mentally...well, there's another question, yeah?"
"Ha ha. Aren't you funny?" Ron said.
"Of course I am," Ginny said. "But that's neither here nor there right now. Right now, we need to get to the bottom of this. You lot stay out here while I work, understand?"
"But-"
"No buts, Ron," she said. "Go finish your inventory or something."
"Fine."
"Fine," she said, catching Harry's eye over Ron's head. He winked at her and the butterflies in her stomach fluttered to life.
She worked for about fifteen minutes before turning to yell at the boys to have them join her, only to find the four of them crammed into the doorway, watching what she was doing.
She sighed. "Come on in, you lot," she said. "I didn't find anything obvious, but maybe one of you will notice something." She leaned against the desk and pulled out her notes, rearranging them into chronological order, while surreptitiously watching Harry from under her fringe.
Ron and Percy kept going back to the desk drawer, still looking, she presumed, for the missing ledger. George was over at the workbench, examining ingredients and supplies.
And Harry...Harry was wandering along the bookshelf, running his fingers across the spines of the books there. Every once in a while, he'd stop, and a pensive expression would wash across his face.
"Huh," Harry said.
"What?" Ginny asked.
"It's just… This is just a little weird, isn't it?" he said, pointing to the shelf against the back wall.
Ginny looked, trying to see the shelf with fresh eyes. There were rows upon rows of notebooks, each colour-coded and labelled with a series of dates, representing the time the books had been in use.
"See," he said, "all of the books are clustered together by colour. Except for this one," he explained, pointing at a book with a purple binding surrounded by several blue books-the colours were very similar, but there was definitely a difference. "And look, it's upside down, and the date's out of order. See? The blue ones are from last year, and the purple ones are dated this year."
Ginny moved closer to the shelf and stood next to Harry. "You're right, Harry. Good catch. What are these?" she asked, turning to George.
"Notebooks," he said. "We keep records of all our experiments in them so we can go back and repeat-"
"Or not," Ron interrupted.
"Or not, if something didn't work," George agreed, "what we did."
Ginny nodded, impressed. She'd never have thought that George or Ron would even think about keeping notes of everything they did, but judging by the number of notebooks on the shelves, it looked like they'd been very meticulous.
"What's in this one?" she asked, pulling the single purple book carefully from the shelf.
"That's last month's," Ron said, checking the date on the spine, "so whatever we worked on last month. There's a recipe for Belching Blossoms, I know, and I think some preliminary notes for the Truth Twisters."
Ginny nodded absentmindedly and started paging through the notebook. "Why wasn't it in the right spot?"
Ron shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe one of us looked at it and wasn't paying attention when we put it away."
"Maybe," Ginny said. "But…"
"But?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, but," she said, holding the open book out so everyone could see it, "someone's torn some pages out."
End chapter 2