Chapter 92: Why small details matter.

Just as Tom promised, the next day he and Natasha came to the Ministry of Magic for the supposed meeting with the Minister.

Of course, both were fully prepared to fight their way out in case Minister Fudge decided to go out with one last bang. That was the whole reason why Tom had him tortured the second time after they gained a mutual understanding. So the guy wouldn't get any strange ideas.

Sure, the poison was a nice failsafe but one could never be too careful.

As they arrived at the Ministry, the very first problem arose right at the entrance.

They were asked for wands, yet, they had none. This basically revealed their identity as the foreigners from the Daily Prophet news a few days prior and the clerk, while shaking in his boots, decided to be brave little shit and valiantly oppose their entrance to the fabled halls of the Ministry.

This! This was exactly why Tom had to act fast, directly, and brutally when he saw the article!

Despite the fact that today's Daily Prophet's first page had a massive apology to them from the Minister and the redaction of their previous article about them was announced, the news was already widespread in the Community, and in turn, their reputation was already damaged.

The opinions of some people about them were already shaped before they even met them which would close some doors for Tom's further machinations.

Needless to say, Tom argued with the ministry clerk who manned the entrance for some time, making a big commotion, but not once did he start threatening him.

His aim was not to persuade the clerk but to be as loud as possible so the other ministry workers would notice and the news would reach someone important. After all, no matter how self-righteous and self-important the annoying entrance clerk was, barring the entrance to the Ministry for no reason at all was definitely not one of his duties.

Fortunately, Tom's plan worked and they didn't even need to kill anyone! Wasn't that just great?

A big black man walked from the inside of the Ministry towards the entrance and had a small chat with the entrance clerk after which the guy was left pale and worriedly clutching the badge that designated him as the entrance guard. The scolding must have been effective since he lost any and all objections at Tom and Natasha entering.

But Tom was far from happy. A simple thing as entering the Ministry and he had to spend around thirty minutes standing in front of it and arguing his way in? And if he hadn't been so loud it attracted the higher-ups' attention he doubted he would be allowed entrance at all!

It was maddening.

One friggin' article!

'Fucking Daily Prophet and fucking Malfoy.' He inwardly seethed while outwardly portraying a mask of joviality as they approached the black-skinned man.

"Hello. I am Kingsley Shacklebolt and I will guide you to the Minister, Mr. Prest, Miss Romanoff." Kingsley said, briefly looking at Tom before his eyes relocated to Natasha where they narrowed.

"Oh, special treatment. Cool." Tom nonchalantly grinned, getting Kingsley's attention back onto him. But his eyes were not laughing at all. Instead, they were giving Kingsley an obvious deadpan look that was practically screaming, 'Dude, she is mine.'

"I am sorry. I didn't have much sleep last night so I am spacing out a bit." The man sheepishly said, realizing that he was staring.

Natasha chuckled at the cute display of masculinity in front of her and squeezed Tom's hand before turning towards Kingsley and asking, "Hard night?"

Inwardly, however, she didn't like how he looked at her. Obviously, he was not smitten with her at first look. Such a notion was stupid. No. There was a reason why his eyes lingered on her and she had the inkling she wouldn't like it.

Yet, she wanted to know. Especially since she recognized the man. He was the same man who was stationed on the door duty yesterday in the Minister's house.

Fortunately, Kingsley was not going to be very tight-lipped. His eye twitched at Natasha asking him this and he subconsciously rubbed his chin.

"Don't mind me. I just had someone posing as my colleague and attacking me, knocking me out during my night guard shift." Kingsley dryly said, giving Natasha a long and hard look full of exasperated 'Duh' feelings.

Natasha didn't let it show on her face but her previous slight unease instantly skyrocketed. She was almost certain they knew it was her who attacked the Minister's house but... 'How?' Her mind worked a mile a minute as she went through the events of yesterday's night, trying to find where she made a mistake.

Outwardly, she just amusedly raised her eyebrow at Kingsley's look, her lips curling into an innocent smile.

There was a reason why they weren't swarmed by Aurors the second they showed up. And there was also the reason why Kingsley was revealing to them what could be said to be secret information of the department.

'Heh~, so they want me to get worried, slip, and blurt out something incriminating?' Natasha mused, 'What do they take me for? An amateur?'

Tom also realized that something was wrong, but he didn't have the context yet so he stayed quiet. He knew Natasha and he knew that smile of hers. He almost pitied Kingsley and decided to simply stay back and enjoy the entertainment.

"Oh?" Natasha's eyes curiously sparkled, her tone full of amusement as she asked, "Did you get the culprit?"

For a moment, Kingsley's expression turned very sour before he quickly schooled it. He had a hard time believing the woman just asked him this so nonchalantly and in the face! She was either insane or extremely arrogant.

The Aurors knew there was an attack on the Minister last night. There was no evidence left in the house and the Minister was found in his bed in the morning as if nothing happened. The man was shaking as if he had just lived through a nightmare but he also vehemently denied that anyone attacked him.

In fact, so vehemently, that it was obvious he was lying.

'The perks of having an idiot as a Minister.' Kingsley dryly thought.

Nevertheless, the Aurors who were stationed as guards did remember being attacked by their colleagues before they blacked out. After waking up and having a small, very tense, and awkward chat at the wand point with each other, they realized their defenses were utterly dismantled like a frog under a potioneer's knife.

It was a very humbling and frustrating feeling. Twenty trained wizards were all taken out without a chance to fire even one spell or even realizing they were under attack.

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Unfortunately, with the Minister refusing to reveal what happened to him last night, there was really nothing they could do. Needless to say, the entire Auror department was on its head. The Minister getting attacked was a massive problem, but without the man himself admitting it, Amelia Bones' hands were tied.

That's why he was here, apparently making a clown out of himself in front of the far too calm suspect number 'it was definitely her.'

Seeing that the woman would not slip up unless he revealed something more significant, Kingsley decided to bring up the big wands. "We looked through the memories of my colleague who suffered the same fate as me but was attacked first..." He trailed off, his eyes watching Natasha and Tom like a hawk.

But when he saw only confusion on their faces, his irritation only increased.

"Memory viewing is a very magical thing. While the man himself would be unable to remember these instances due to his head trauma, we could plainly see that the culprit was a woman." Kingsley's eyes narrowed at Natasha, "A redhead, at that."

Adding to that the fact that the Minister practically demanded the Daily Prophet to redact their earlier article about these foreigners, the whole thing was plainly obvious.

'Ha! What do you have to say for yourself now? Bitch!' He was definitely not grumpy about being knocked out so easily. No. He was just... doing his job.

But just as Kingsley eagerly awaited Natasha to panic, her next words instantly froze his excitement.

"A redhead, you say?" Natasha innocently blinked, looking Kingsley straight into his eyes, "Did you try interrogating Mrs. Weasley yet?"

That was such a ridiculous statement that Kingsley almost face-faulted right there. And it was said with such an ease that his mood plummeted to the deepest pits of hell. He was now certain. No matter what he did, this woman was too good at this. She would not slip up.

Unfortunately for him, Natasha indeed realized her mistake and did inwardly panic for a second, but she was too good at hiding her emotions and thoughts.

It was her hair that betrayed her identity. She did hit the first Auror extremely hard and under normal circumstances, he should be unable to remember her so she should have been safe on that front...

But she apparently underestimated wizards. Or rather, she didn't have enough information about them. If she knew they could view memories, even the forgotten or blocked ones, she would have disguised her hair color too.

Oh, well, spilled milk and all that...

She also knew she wore a mask as it was a standard part of her equipment, yet, the man never mentioned that. This detail made her assured Kingsley was just fishing for information.

The best way to deal with this situation was just to ignore his looks full of accusations and blurt out something ridiculous so she did just that.

"No. We really didn't." Kingsley deadpanned.

"Eh. My condolences, then. Then again, how hard could it be to find a redhead among Scottish and Irish people? I am sure there are not that many of them. Good luck." Natasha said with an easy-going smile as if it was not her problem anymore.

As for Tom, he finally got enough context from their debate, realizing the problem. He also stayed calm, trusting in Natasha's ability to bullshit her way through anything. She was not the best mundane assassin for nothing. If Kingsley thought he could make her verbally slip, he was in for a very rude awakening.

Still, Tom was... impressed. He totally forgot about Pensieve and didn't think the DMLE would actually use one to get a clue about the attacker.

Of course, they were supposed to realize there was an attack. Maybe even eventually suspect them. But Tom was fairly sure he and Natasha were safe due to various reasons.

Yet, once again a small detail was missed and the suspicion fell on them instantly and it became a certainty after the Minister did his dumb stunt of redacting his previous article.

'I am surrounded by retards.' Tom inwardly sighed, 'I need more alone time with Natasha.'

Still, it was all good. Natasha was bullshitting her way out of the problem and the DMLE clearly didn't have any evidence incriminating them. They were in the clear.

In fact, Tom paid more attention to Natasha's crimson-colored nails rather than the conversation itself. His choice of giving the Power of Destruction to an assassin was correct from what he was seeing.

Unlike what Kingsley would think, it was not a nail polish that was covering them, but a very deadly layer of Power of Destruction.

It was so inconspicuous too. Without being good at sensing, nobody would realize it wasn't just s nail polish.

Natasha was clearly prepared to fight her way out at the moment's notice if the DMLE decided to arrest them despite their lack of evidence.

'But... covering her nails in the Power of Destruction, huh? That's...'

Tom's thoughts were suddenly interrupted as Kingsley spoke to him, "Mr. Prest, you are staying somewhat quiet. What opinion do you have on the topic?"

That was the last attempt of the man. He realized Natasha was a dead end so...

"Hmmm?" Tom blinked, turning his head to Natasha before looking back at Kingsley, "Natasha is a woman. She is fully capable of having an opinion for the both of us." He shamelessly said, proud at Kingsley's jaw actually dropping for a second.

"I see." Kingsley recollected himself with a sigh, "Let me just take you to the Minister, then." He grumbled.

Sometimes, his job just sucked.

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