He held his wand tightly in his hand, but simultaneously his grip loosened. He cannot break away his promise. He will not falter; he will do it. But should he?

He sat on his comfortable sofa, which was his best place to sit and ponder over whenever he wished to. He cannot simply dare to go against him. Even if he did so (quite improbably), he wouldn't be alive for long to join the Ministress and confront his fate by fighting against Sir. "The Unbreakable Vow would ensure that." How on earth would he ever be able to help himself? He cannot take it in for long. He cannot resist the temptation to go to the Ministress and tell everything. But at the same time, that sense of duty and responsibility came over him whenever he gave a thought to that idea. Will he ever be able to drag himself out of this trap? Ever since he had made the Vow, he would repeatedly be snared by that horrible nightmare - a terrible reverie which wouldn't stop destroying his slumber at night. He sees himself in a dark room sitting on a chair, tightened sternly to it - unable to move his hands or legs. And then a dark figure wearing shrewd black cloak would approach to him till its rotting hands or bones with lumps of skin would clutch his face and suck out all of his happiness or should he say, his entire soul. Whenever he thought of that idea, he would tremble but at the same time could he afford to be haunted continuously by that dream? Of course, not. Where he always felt confident in front of Sir - promising him to accomplish the long desired aim, at the same point he couldn't muster up any courage to tell Ministress about it. He was afraid of the consequences from both the sides. Wilkins felt terribly timid.

He shivered out of fear. But then a thought struck him. What actually was he doing? Why was he trapped in between a dagger which was sharp from both the edges? What should he do? Bravery and determination work hand in hand. "'Cause I believe you're capable, Wilkins."

Sir must have said it for a reason. Finally, he knew what to do.
______________________________________

"Did you get any of the files that might be of some benefit to us?"

"Not yet. You, Ron?"

"Nah, mate."

The three of them had been searching through the dusty and untidy almirahs, drawers and documents that were scattered in their shelves. The structure of the Ministry Archive could be easily compared to the Ministry's Hall of Prophecy. They had been looking for some important files since a very long time - about two hours and when Ron and Harry were just about to loose their hopes on the successful seizure of any of the significant documents, Hermione gave a startled gasp.

Ron and Harry said at the same time.

"What happened?"

"I guess I've found something that can be good for us."

Hermione had been searching for the files in the back of the room, in the last of the almirahs. As Harry and Ron reached there, she had got down the ladder and was clutching a very dusty file comprising of crinkly pages. By the looks of it, it seemed that no one had never touched that file since a very long time, at a guess maybe over forty years. But Hermione was not looking at their startled faces; she was astonished as if she had read a terrible secret about someone or something.

"Wilkins! Here it is."

"Wilkins? Who the hell is he?"

Ignoring Ron's fury over the name that was unknown to him, Hermione looked at Harry. As she had expected, Harry had furrowed his eyebrows - she knew he had heard that name and she knew that Harry was trying to recall it.

"Will anyone of you tell me who is that person by the name of Wilkins?"

"Katherine 'Jean' Wilkins."

"Yes, Harry. This is our lead - this is the clue we have been looking for so long. Do you not remember anyone related to this name? "

"Wait a minute! Katherine Wilkins was mother to a mere ten year old boy. I've studied about that case back in 2005 when I had been training for as an Auror. I do not remember any other details about it."

"Why would anyone, Harry? It might seem to be an unimportant name to be remembered or recalled as a legend - of course. Why'd any witch or wizard ever be interested in her? And when that case had prevailed, no one had ever cared - no one had ever cared about poor Rudolf."

"What do you mean? What're you talking about, Hermione?" Harry said with a pause. "Are you telling me that  Rudolf is none other than Katherine's son?"

"Yes, Harry. You've got it."

"Can anyone of you tell me who the hell actually Katherine Wilkins is?"

As Harry saw Hermione's anger building up within her, who really felt annoyed to tell anything (by judging her face), he took up the command to convey about the case to him.

"Let me tell you, Ron. Katherine 'Jean' Wilkins, a Muggle woman, was as normal and simple lady as you can expect her to be. She was a single parent and mother to a mere ten year old boy. Everything went loggerheads for her as she was suspected to be practising Dark Arts and the Ministry was suspicious if she was a supporter of Voldemort. But she was soon acquitted of it. Her memory was Obliviated by the Aurors after she was released out of custody. But then, Ministry got to know that she had a son and his memory also needed to be altered according to the terms. But mysteriously her son had gone missing."

"Missing? Does that mean he simply vanished? I don't reckon a 10 year old boy could Apparate." Ron tried to sound mischievous.

"Not exactly. What happened was that along with her memory of being tried by the Wizengamot court, her memory got changed in such a way that she forgot if she ever had a son. Basically, this case had been quite infamous in 1979 or years around it. And this was because this case came to be called as 'Testimony to Ministry's inefficiency' by critics and the Daily Prophet. This case is taught to amateur Aurors as a part of their learning and training; to tell them that these sorts of cases and judgements can occur in their careers which can absolutely test their abilities as a wizard and how to withstand them. This actually served as a Case Study for them. I have only this information as of now, based on my knowledge."

"But no one actually cared about that poor woman and her poor son. Five to six years later, she was found dead in her house and I know intuitively that Ministery did that. And her little son ran away from his home out of fear, never to return back."

"Hermione! It is not right in saying that she was murdered by Ministry officials. It was a mere case of misconduct by the Ministry and in later years, this issue was resolved and-"

"And that costed the lives of an innocent mother and her son for the Ministry to realise its flaw! This is really, really unjustified."

"Hermione, you need to understand that you're dispising the same Magical institution of which you are the head."

"No, Harry. I don't give a damn to despise the Ministry. But I absolutely condemn this fault."

Ron cleared his throat and said as a pause seemed to come between the two of them.

"Hermione! It is as if you're shedding tears on a death that has occurred just now. Do you believe that we should condemn and mourn the deaths that have happened in the past? Do you think that all those people who died fighting the Death Eaters and Voldemort - their deaths should be mourned? Do you believe that Fred and many others died just to make everyone feel that how precious their presence was or how important they were! No, Hermione. These people had died a significant death and they'll always be recalled. But we shouldn't mourn on their deaths, for that would destroy the sanity of the reason for which they died. That Wilkins lady sacrificed her life for a very noble cause, for it ultimately reformed the Ministry with its terms."

As Ron gave this great speech, Hermione and Harry could comprehend that feeling when he said about the deaths of those beloved yet brave people who died in the Second Wizarding War. As Ron had remarked they could never be forgotten; utterly the Magical Community owes that much to their courage.

Tears could easily be seen in those blue eyes. Hermione and Harry embraced Ron in a loving hug.

"Ummm...um sorry. I just got emotional."

"Stupid! You've got the sentiment."

Ron gave Hermione a delightful grin. Harry coughed.

"Let us come back to the case. I've been thinking, Hermione, there's no mention of Rudolf being that little son of Katherine. How come you guess that?"

"Because I read about it in the Hogwarts Library's section of The Daily Prophet. That case celebrated its 15th year in 1993 or 1994. And I just got to grab a fresh newspaper. I remember it quite clearly reading about a boy by the name Rudolf Jean Wilkins who ran away from his house and how no one knew about his whereabouts till that very date. And here, I just recalled where I'd heard that very name of Katherine Wilkins and Rudolf Jean and we've got her now as you two see."

"Well, so this case - I mean can it be beneficial in the murders of Ravangers and Wellington?"

Harry and Hermione looked at each other. Well, that was the question for them also. How was this fruitful in knowing about the murderer behind these killings? But somehow, Hermione felt tempted that it'd, irrespective  of its improbability, lead them to the murderer. Her Ministress instinct said that.

"But I do feel this case would help us."

Hermione looked up. Ron was looking at her. She was sometimes so downright astonished whenever Ron and she shared the same thoughts. It had happened 2-3 days back when they dropped Rose and Hugo to the Hogwarts Express. It felt as if that was decades ago. But today felt a new day which needed to be started afresh.

"Well Ron. Even I feel that. My instinct somehow makes me say that it'd surely help us."

Harry nodded. "Well, what I believe is - we seem to be going in the right direction. Let's not get deviated from it. I guess we're surely going to get something out of it when we investigate Rudolf Jean. Also, it may solve that curious mystery of Katherine's murder."

"But somehow, still, this question intrigued me - How did Rudolf manage to hide his dark yet unforgettable past from everybody else? How come he emerge out of that horrendous situation and rose to this position in the Ministry?"

"And no one ever realised about it? Well, even that question quite fascinates me. We'll soon get to know that when Rudolf is asked about it."

Ron had furrowed his eyebrows.

"But do you reckon that asking Rudolf about it would be not wrong?"

The trio looked at each other, quite solemnly without any sign of expressions.