Lunar Eclipse

Chapter Twenty Three

Then, taking a deep breath, he stepped out of the shadows.

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"Ah Mr. Potter," a voice said. Harry whipped his head around to face which direction the voice had come from. He saw a cloaked figure, and began to feel suffocated by panic.

With his past, cloaked figures had never meant good things.

"Give me Kingsley," Harry spat, keeping his wand pointed at the group of figures that stood behind the man in the cloak, while still remaining aware of his surroundings.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," the cloaked man said with a chuckle. The hair on the back of Harry's neck raised. There was something off about the group.

"What do you want?" Harry asked, mind racing.

"What do we want? My boy, it's about what you want?"

"Stop talking in circles!" Harry barked, jabbing his wand in their direction. Through his years of being Head Autor, he had learned that talking got you nowhere. "Get to the point."

"Tsk Tsk. Patience is a wonderful virtue young man, perhaps you should learn some," the figure scolded."But, since you seem to be so adamant, I suppose I will tell you. It's either you or Kingsley."

"Surrender Kingsley," Harry stated, without second thought. The hooded figure chuckled.

"Always the selfless one, Potter? What would your wife and children say?"

"Leave them out of this," Harry growled.

"I hear you're expecting another one. Congratulations, by the way."

"How do you know that?" Harry lunged at the man. Taking a hesitant step back, the man stopped.

"We have eyes everywhere. We know everything. Now I suggest you back up before something happens to that family of yours that's cowering in the bunker of your parents old estate."

Harry felt as if someone had dumped ice water down his spine. Nobody, not even Ron and Hermione, knew where their safe space was. It took every ounce of self control to keep from attacking the men now.

But he remembered his training. The main rule was to feel out the group, and never jump into a situation in which you were outnumbered. And here, with the seven men standing in front of him, and who knows how many lurking in the shadows, Harry was most definitely outnumbered.

Something still didn't feel right with the group, though. They seemed to talk a bigger game than what they were actually willing to do.

"Are you Deatheaters?" Harry asked, in attempt to distract them.

"Why would we tell you?" Snarled the cloaked man. "But since you said you were coming with us, I suppose I could tell you."

The man rolled up his sleeve slowly, revealing the Dark Mark that covered his dark skin.

"We were some of the Dark Lord's loyalest followers."

The man kept talking, but all Harry could focus on was the glimmer coming from the Dark Mark on the man's forearm. Normal marks didn't shine like that.

"I'm going to stop you there," Harry interrupted. The man whipped around and glared at Harry from the hooded shadows that were his eyes.

"Would you care to explain to me why you've glamoured a Dark Mark on to your arm, Minister?"

"Ahh, Mr. Potter," the man chuckled, lowering his hood to reveal Kingsley Shacklebolt. Holding a wand up to his throat, he reversed the voice altering spell.

"Gentlemen, he has figured it out. You may all return to your homes," Kingsley turned to the rest of the hooded figures that had been lurking behind him the entire time.

"With all due respect, Minister, I would politely like to say what the bloody hell was that?" Harry asked. His heart was racing, because despite dealing with criminals that threatened the lives of him and his family on a daily basis, they had never known so much information.

"Congratulations Harry, you've passed your yearly Auror exams," Kingsley sighed, taking a seat on a milk jug crate. "I'm sorry we stressed you out. Unfortunately, I was required to do this for your five year evaluation."

Harry let out a deep breath and collapsed on to the crate next to the Minister.

"Ginny is going to murder me," Harry said.

"No, Ginny's going to murder me," Kingsley corrected with a chuckle. "I'm sorry that we took it as far as we did. I was just supposed to set up the most threatening scenario possible and see if you followed instructions by using as minimal magic as possible."

"I wanted to hex you into next year when you mentioned the safe spot," Harry said darkly. "What would you have done if I had actually hurt you?"

"I had plenty of wards up. If you had tried to hex me, they would have simply been absorbed. Again, I'm very sorry to startle you. Amazing job spotting the glamour by the way."

"It was a very poor glamour," Harry laughed. "But I knew when my scar didn't throb that it wasn't real."

"Your scar still hurts?" Kingsley asked, a hint of shock in his voice.

"Only when I can feel the heavy presence of dark magic, normally brought on by those still actively practicing with the Dark Mark."

The two men sat in silence for a moment before Kingsley stood up and pat Harry's shoulder affectionately, as a proud father would with a son.

"Well, it is getting late. You'd better go take care of that family of yours. Send Ginny my love."

"Oh, with her hormones at the moment? You'll be lucky to walk away with only a Bat Bogie hex," Harry chuckled.

"Unfortunately, I know you're probably right," Kingsley shook his head, but he smiled. "Oh, an Harry?"

"Yes sir?"

"Take the day off tomorrow, I insist. Spend some time with your family and get some sleep."

"Thank you, sir," Harry nodded in acknowledgement.

"Goodnight Harry."

"Goodnight Minister," and with that, Harry apprated to the safe spot to relieve his probably frantic wife and terrified children.

Even though it was only a test, all he wanted to do was wrap them all up in a hug and never let go.

(A/N: okay okay, that was mean and I apologize. However, please note that I DID NOT HURT ANYONE SO TAKE MERCY WHEN REVIEWING! Also please note that I do not have access to my computer currently so I wrote all of this on my phone, so if you see any errors in formatting or typos, it is most likely because of that. Also, because of that, updates will be a bit slower because typing on a phone is way slower than on a computer! Anyways, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!)