"JUST LIKE THAT?" Leo questioned in disbelief. The smell of Molly's breakfast spread that had been prepared for the group who had been practicially trapped at the Burrow, and the small group of Order members who arrived before the sun even rose completely. "You'll get Scrimgeour to change his mind?"

Kingsley offered Leo a small chuckle as he gathered his cloak to leave, Cooleridge already neared the door as he pulled on his own cloak. "Kingsley can be quite persuasive when it comes to Fudge." he announced.

"And the Minister will get Scrimgeour to change his mind, by next week you should be back at your desk."

"You won't even have to be the new guy I reckon," Cooleridge replied, "you'll get to break in the new guy that Scrimgeour will have to bring in."

          Silence filled the entry way of the burrow and Leo looked over his shoulder to look at the dining room table where Lydia was seated across from Remus Lupin and beside Mona. The morning hadn't been easy for any of them, nobody wanted to hear the details of Voldemorts weak attempts to return. But the small vile that Lupin had tucked away in his pocket that was filled to the top with a shimmering looking strand of memories that Lydia had recounted for all of them. Them memories were going to be in the Headmasters' office at Hogwarts by the time the day ended. And Lydia would be on her way to Hogwarts in a few days time, if it had been up to Shacklebolt she would have been off to Hogwarts along with Remus to give the Headmaster her memories in person, but Lydia wanted a few days to just get back on her feet. She wanted to get ready to disappear before she up and left. Something Sirius didn't like to admit he was envious of. This whole ordeal, being able to do something it seemed to be Sirius' element. He had begun to seem lost, his few interactions with the Order couldn't keep him satisfied for long. And Leo could only bear to be stuck with him and his dirty dishes in one apartment for so long. He hadn't had the opprotunity to prepare to disappear. As soon as he was out of Azkaban, he had to be invisible. He had to be hiding from everyone, except a select group. Lydia, she was going to be hiding in plain sight. Right under Voldemort's nose.

"Think you'll be able to handle that, Black?" Kingsley questioned, amusement in his tone.

"Uh, yeah, I think I'll be able to handle that." Leo replied quickly turning his attention back to Kingsley and Cooleridge who had to hurry to the ministry for their shift.

"Good, you should be hearing from Scrimgeour by Saturday." he replied, "Until then, don't go looking for anymore death eaters."

Leo scoffed, "I'll try not to."

With that, the two of them left the burrow. The pops and cracks surrounded the house as the disappeared.

Leo turned making his way into the kitchen just as Remus Lupin rose to his feet to leave to. "-so you shouldn't need to be too worried about any of them getting to you." Remus finished, looking down at Lydia. "They'd be foolish to even want to even try that route of things, Leo's not much help to Voldemort now that he knows what he was planning."

Barely.

        From what Lydia could tell them, Leo was just meant to be about as helpful as Marth had been as Lydia for her short stint at the ministry. Literal eyes and ears for Voldemort, and then someone to take the blame once he returned with his own body. A Black who made the choice to come to Europe after estranging himself from his family, who worked so hard to get in the good graces of those at the Ministry would have caused quite a commotion by acting on behalf of Voldemort. It would have been a big story, a big distraction.

"Thank you," Lydia replied, not nearly as enthusiastic as she should have been at the thought of making it out of that manor in time. She hadn't exactly been too thrilled about the plan for her going into Hogwarts and being given whatever task Dumbledore had on his mind to keep her busy until she could return to the Ministry. But right now, with someone else having the ability to be her, sending the real Lydia to Hogwarts was really the only real way they could keep track of where the real Lydia was. There was a chance that Maude Marth could try again at the ministry, and starting a fight with an auror and accusing them of being a death eater definetly wouldn't have helped since the Ministry didn't even want to admit that Voldemort was trying to return.

Remus offered her a small smile and curt nod before he turned to Mona. "Well done, Mona, by the way," he said simply, "St. Mungo's will be lucky to have you."

St. Mungo's?

"Thanks, Remus." Mona replied.

           If Leo were to be one-hundred percent honest, he was actually surprised at how well Mona had handled Lydia when they arrived. Despite having questions– good ones at that, regarding Sirius and what he was doing there. She didn't ask a single question to Lydia, it didn't matter how she got all of her cuts and bruises. It wasn't that Leo was surprised that she could mend Lydia as well as she did, it was that he didn't picture her really as the healing type.

"How are you feeling about all of this, Leo?" Remus questioned as he stepped past Leo on his way out. "Do you think you'll be alright being back at the ministry? I'm sure Headmaster Dumbledore could figure out something to do with you at Hogwarts."

"I'm a loyal Illvermorny alumni, Remus." Leo replied simply, "I think I'll pass on sending a few weeks locked in Hogwarts."

Remus chuckled before he continued past Leo to leave, presumably to bring Lydia's memories directly to Hogwarts.

           In the moment he watched Remus leave, as soon as Leo turned back towards the kitchen table, Lydia was already sitting alone while Mona began to clear dishes from the table to the counter where the charmed sponge would begin taking them from to clean them.

"So you're really okay with all of this?" Leo questioned her as he lowered himself into a chair beside her. "You're up for just heading off to Hogwarts, as if nothing happened?"

Lydia sighed, "That's why I'm going to go," she replied, "and it's not as if nothing happened. It's because something did happen. And until the ministry, and Scrimgeour are ready to admit that you-know-who is back, I don't trust anyone in that building."

Leo rose a brow.

"Besides you, Cooleridge, and Kingsley." Lydia corrected herself picking up her cup of tea and taking a sip of it. "But I think you should come with...Leo, I over heard some of it, what he wants to do with you...it's...it's worse than just becoming you with a potion..." she said, "it would be more like...like you becoming him...I haven't heard of anyone using magic like that since maybe Grindelwald...and this sounded like something that was even out of reach for him."

"I'll be fine, Lydia." Leo assured her, "Now that we know about Marth in the Ministry and what his plan was...he's going to need a new one."

Lydia didn't seem all to reassured by Leo's words.

"Lydia, do you want any more tea?" Mona questioned.

"No thanks."

"Is there any coffee left?" Leo asked hopefully.

"Already poured it out." Mona replied nonchalantly. "After you finish that you should get some rest, Lydia. That potion last night should be mending your fractures, but your concussion still just needs some rest." she explained simply before seeing herself out of the kitchen.

Both Leo and Lydia watched her leave and after it was clear she wasn't coming back, Lydia turned to Leo with a scaring eyebrow arch high. "Well, there's a bit or a draft in here, don't you think? Or was that just me?"

"I don't think she's exactly happy I left out the detail about Sirius living with me."

          Sure enough, by Friday afternoon when Leo got back to his apartment, with Sirius trailing behind him as the scrappy black dog that all of Leo's neighbors were probably waiting for him to get rid of, he had letter from Scrimgeour. Inviting Leo back to the ministry due to Lydia Corner taking a personal leave of absence due to a family matter and some new information that he had presented to him. Leo had no idea what the story Kingsley told the Minister, and he had even less of an idea of what Fudge said to Scrimgeour to convince him to bring back Leo. Which was a nice piece of news.

           It had only been a few days, and through the weekend– Leo didn't even try to speak to Mona. He cold shoulder was enough to tell him that at least for the time being, she didn't want to speak to him. So that left him with helping Lydia prepare for her move, which he didn't need to do. By the time he rolled out of bed, and made it to Lydia's most of her belongings were packed away and she was ready to go. So Friday morning, she was off without a single problem. Then over the weekend, the most exciting thing that happened was Leo was invited to Atticus and Alyona's small Christmas party in America which Sirius found comical that he would even consider going. Besides that, Sirius made a habit of howling loud enough every morning at four in the morning on the dot to bring Katie from the next apartment over to pound on Leo's door.

"You should get back out there, Leo,"  he'd say as soon as Leo got Katie convinced that his dog was getting senial in his old age, "ever since you got to London you've been drooling over that Zabini girl, there are plenty of other options out there. Don't you have a thing for muggles?"  Although Sirius had been locked away in Azkaban when Leo was in school, during their time stuck together in the apartment while Leo kept his word to Kingsley by keeping a low profile, Caitlyn had been one topic of conversation. One that he regretted ever telling Sirius about.

       So once Monday morning came, Leo couldn't get out fast enough. The thought of being trapped in the apartment for another day with Sirius was agonizing. Although his welcome back to the ministry was less than warm, besides his run in with Arthur on his way to the Auror's department. But he didn't pay much attention to the side-eyes he got from other ministry officials.

"Welcome back," Cooleridge announced from his desk, causing Thomas to turn and look over his shoulder as Leo walked towards the desks.

Leo sighed heavily, "Feels great to be back." he replied.

"Just try not to go getting into anything else with your family," Thomas said, chuckling a bit. "we've got enough on our plate lookin' for the other Black. We'll be happy to brush off the drunk wizards and Old Lady Benson back onto you."

"Mrs. Benson?" Leo questioned.

"That house elf is causing quite the problem." Cooleridge replied, a irritated eyeroll followed by yet another laugh from Thomas as Leo made his way to his desk.

          However, at his desk, besides everything he had left there– sitting across from it wasn't Lydia. And it definetly wasn't as spotless as Lydia would have liked. If Lydia could see the shape of her desk now, she would have been flustered. Angry even. Across her desk was  a short pile of square frames that hadn't been set up, a pile of parchment, and a green muggle notebook. And bent over a bit putting things into a drawer was a wizard.

The new guy, Leo thought. He had expected a new partner. But not right away.

Leo pulled out his seat before he lowered himself into it. "Hey,"

The man sitting across from him sat up abruptly. He had dark hair and a beard that matched. He easily had a couple of years old Leo. "Leo Black," he started, "nice to meet you. Nick Finch," he introduced himself and held his hand out across the desks for Leo to take.

"You're new?" Leo questioned, raising a brow as he shook his hand. "I was expecting my new partner to be a bit-"

"Younger?" he cut in, smirking a bit as the two of them both pulled their hands away from their greeting. "Figured...unlike the lot of you I guess you could say I found my calling a bit late in life."

Leo snickered.

"I hear you have quite a bit of experience between MCUSA and the Ministry," he added.

Leo smirked, "A bit, yeah. You could say that..."

"Well, should be nice working with you." Nick stated, but it took a moment for the corners of his mouth to twitch into a small smile.

"Mhm, likewise." Leo replied simply.

"Black, I see you met your new partner," Scrimgeour's voice boomed from his office as the man made his way from his office door towards the two desks. "Finch is joining us from Magical Affairs of France." Scrimgeour said, holding a hand out to Leo as if to give him a welcoming back handshake.

"Magical Affairs of France," Leo echoed, almost questioning what Scrimgeour said.

Nick smiled and chuckled a bit as Scrimgeour shook his hand next, "Fifteen years with the Auror's office over there." he replied simply before crossing his arms on his desk and smirking a bit. "But I've been hoping to move back to London to be closer to my family, my nephew is the first wizard in our family and he's a bit sick of being surrounded by muggles during his holidays."

Leo stared at him, he could feel a snappy retort just itching to come out. But with Scrimgeour standing there, he managed to hold it back.

"I'll let you two get aquainted, then Black, I need you to follow up with that old woman in and her mysterious house-elf. Bring Finch with you." Scrimgeour said, clapping a hand on Leo's shoulder before turning to go back to his office.

"Fifteen years, huh?" Leo questioned.

"Mhm."

Leo rose his brows, "Nice, nice..." he paused, "never managed to get a proper promotion though?"

Nick's brows furrowed.

Leo pressed his lips together in a tight lipped smile as he nodded, "Don't worry, maybe someday you'll get there."

AUTHORS NOTE;
Honestly, thank you justanillusion and xonceuponatimex for telling me he'd suit the Reckless Universe. Because now we have Nick. And I love him.

NEW MAIN CAST MEMBER:
JAKE GYLLENHAAL AS NICHOLAS "NICK" FINCH

stay classy!
*unedited*