Out of the Dark

Rick Cooper had been extricated, found by other Unspeakables and brought back. Now, in the morning sunlight, he found himself, after all these years, back on English soil, back in London, and sitting in the Minister's office.  He'd had his orders to return.


"My assignment wasn't over," Rick said quietly, more unhappy about being brought back to England than whether or not the work was done.


"You were made," Lupin said to him. "Your cover was blown.  Its over."


"I can fix it!" Rick protested.


"Bloody unlikely. If I hadn't brought you back,..." Lupin began.


"Who died and made you Spymaster?" Rick was angry now.


"My predecessor, actually," Robert said calmly, not surprised that Rick was angry.  "I am the Spymaster here.  Its part of what I do. Or should I have you review your handbook?"


"No."  The answer was quick and terse from Rick's lips.


"That's not the real question, is it?" Robert said.  Now the man went too far.  Rick didn't answer. The pause was palpable, painful, and probably far more anquishing for Rick than it was for Robert Lupin.  Lupin slid two dossiers over to Rick. Amelia's and Hallie's.  Rick wanted to reject them as much as he wanted to see them.


"They're alive, you know. Perhaps its time they saw you were alive again too," Lupin said.


"No," Rick said. "They're better off thinking I"m dead."


"Are they now? Really?" Robert said. "If you think that, then do what you do.  Find out.  Make your own choice.  Consider it your next assignment if you need to."


Rick narrowed his eyes at Lupin, but at the same time, he put the dossiers in his bag.  


"And when do I get my next 'real' assignment?" Rick asked.


"When I say so," Robert said.  "First, you need a shower and a shave."


"Love the obvious, don't you?" Rick set his tea mug aside and stood to his feet. "I think that winds this up, then, doesn't it?"  He turned and headed for the door.


"Not quite. Here," Lupin said. Rick turned to see Lupin toss him a ring of keys.


"What's this? Safehouse?"


"Pfft," Robert snorted. "You don't need a safehouse.  Its a cottage in Hogsmeade.  Your next door neighbor is Michael Tremaine. Its behind Honeydukes. I presume you still know your way. Your place is just to the east of Michael's stone cottage."  A knock on the door interrupted Robert, who recognized Michael's knock.  "That would be Tremaine.  He's here to be sure you have all you need at least for today. Now, we're finished. Good day."  


Rick turned and headed out the door to see Michael Tremaine there. Michael had been part of the extraction team. Tremaine hadn't said much. He'd simply done the job.


"Thanks, but no thanks. I can buy my own groceries," Rick said.


"I'm not your enemy," Michael said. "You don't want to see them and I get it. The sooner you get out of here and into Hogsmeade the better.  I'll get the rest for you at least for a day or so.  Then, trust me, you're on your own.  Shall we?"


"Yeah, sure," Rick sighed. They headed to the lifts together to head to Hogsmeade. Lupin hadn't done Rick Cooper any favors. 


"The

Over a month had passed since Hallie asked for her auror position again. The blonde had been ready to return to her position since her return to England although Hallie had had no reason to. She has grown comfortable living an easy life, it was what she wanted, some time but a month ago Hallie had learnt some information that had provoked a return to the Ministry. Her Father might have been a death eater.

She'd heard the news from someone she considered a friend, Tobias Acker, Order member. He had come to her one evening when she was working in the Leaky Cauldron to ask what she knew about 'Robert Cooper'. Only those who didn't know him called him Robert and why people were talking about him all of a sudden Hallie wanted to know, however, what she wanted to know more was about what they were talking about. As far as Hallie knew her Father had died protecting their family, lost his own life to protect her Mother and her from being attacked by death eaters. If her Father had been a death eater then why had they decided to kill him? None of it made sense.

Upon returning to her auror position Hallie had searched for her Father's auror files. Maybe he had been more lenient on wizards who were suspected death eaters? If that were the case then that would be the evidence pointing towards his allegiance and provide some sort of answer for Hallie. Hallie still hadn't found an answer. Moreover his auror files ended a lot earlier than suspected. In fact, for the last five or so years of his life there was no record of him even working at the ministry. Where had her Father been going whenever he left the house for work. She could hardly talk to Amelia for the blonde didn't want to tarnish any memory Amelia had of her late husband. Instead she'd talked to Nick, not that that had helped for she was still in this dilemma. The only person who may be able to provide an answer was the Minister of Magic and the auror could hardly waltz into his office demanding answers.

The information, or lack of information for a better phrase, was only causing more problems for Hallie. She wasn't entirely focused at work, already a dark wizard had slipped through her fingers the past month, whether that was because magic was haywire or because she was lost in thought Hallie didn't know but whatever the reason it wasn't helping. Whenever Hallie returned to work she saw her Father's ghost everywhere. Sometimes she'd look over her shoulder thinking the maintenance wizard was her Father and...

Yes. There he was again walking out of the lift. No. Wait. That was actually him, wasn't it? His hair had more of a salt and pepper coloration and the clean shaven skin was hidden beneath a layer of bristled facial hair but Hallie was sure it was her Father.

No. It's not him, you're imagining things again. Hallie told herself, combing her hair behind her ear and looking down at the files in her hand. Yet this time she wasn't so sure. There was something about the eyes that Hallie recognised. Sure they'd wrinkled around the edges but they were her colour and the lips. The were the shape of the lips Hallie recognised from the mirror. This had to be him, but it didn't make sense. Robert Cooper was dead.

Turning around to face the wall Hallie bit her lip. All of a sudden the corridor felt as though someone had raised the temperature by twenty degrees. Her entire body was sweating, her palms no sticky, knees weak, lungs beginning to work overdrive. Hallie needed to do one of two things: Go to St Mungo's for a calming draught and consult a psychiatrist or head to the Ministers office.

Hallie had met Robert Lupin only a couple of times, he wasn't exactly a friend, he was her boss for whom she held respect and the last thing Hallie wanted was for the Minister to see her in such a state but she needed to know she was still sane. She needed reassurance. She needed answers. She needed a Father figure.

Rick caught the glance of the little blonde as he went into the lift and turned around.  The blood in his veins turned to ice, and his heart felt like it stopped.  He hadn't seen her since she was tiny, but he knew.  He wasn't sure how he knew. He just knew.

Cool, he coached himself silently. Be very cool. He turned to try to avoid her seeing him face on, and nudged Tremaine playfully, like Tremaine was actually an old mate, and pretended to laugh.

"You'd better tell me that Lupin hasn't set me up," he said, with the quiet phony laughter he was using to try to keep it all from blowing to hell.  "Tell me now that isn't my daughter."

Michael was able to pull this old school manuever off just as easily.  He turned to Rick, with a slight laugh in his own voice.

"He didn't set you up, but do you want me to lie and tell you it wasn't her?  She's an auror, Mate.  She works here.  Just like you do. Calm down." The lift doors closed. 

"Bloody gits!" Rick punched Michael hard in the shoulder.  "What gives you the right to ruin their lives!"

"Rick," Michael said, hearing his pain, "Their lives were changed the day you agreed to take that assignment."

"I refuse to put them through any more! He didn't have a right to bring me back!"

"He had every right, and you know it. It was his call.  Perhaps, just perhaps, he knows Hallie a little better than you do these days. Maybe she's stronger than you're giving her credit for."

"And what about Amelia? How is any of that right for her either?"

"I fought alongside Amelia once," Michael recalled. "If you think she's a limp dishrag, you really don't know her these days.  I've seen both Cooper women do some extraordinary things.  Rick, do them a favor. Stop trying to control their lives from a distance. It never works."

Upstairs in his office, Robert Lupin signed the orders for Rick Cooper--closing his official deployment out of England and reassigning him back to Britain's home office of Unspeakables.  He signed the change of address forms and the transfer of Rick's larger account back to Gringotts. He closed the dossier on Cooper and laid it aside.  

He picked up his tea mug and went to the credenza to refill his cup. What little remained in his cup had gone cold.

The ping and closing of the elevator doors signaled to Hallie that the man she believed to be her Father was gone. Only once before had Hallie had to deal with a situation remotely similar to this. The night she had been reunited with Toby, although that had been a little different as he found her and cared for her once she'd been mugged. It was a happy reunion, it was the silver lining in her Father's watch being stolen. There appeared to be nothing positive about this.

So that man, the man she believed to be dead was walking around the ministry as though nothing had happened. Little did he know how much Hallie had changed, how much she'd gone throw, how much their entire family had survived. Hallie idolised the man she believed had sacrificed himself to save their lives now all of a sudden that admiration had been tainted.

It was only when Hallie felt her hand knocking on a door she realised where she was. Without realising her legs had carried her up to the Ministry of Magic's office. She'd followed her heart. She needed answers, or help, one of the two but Hallie had a gut feeling that she hadn't hallucinated. Michael Tremain had been besides him, that surely mean't they'd come from the Ministers office.

The auror didn't wait for a reply, or if a 'come in' was granted Hallie had noticed after a couple of seconds Hallie had pushed open the door, her eyes wide and the usual life inside of them was somewhat vacant.

'Sorry to be here like this Minister, I mean, sorry I wasn't announced, appointed. I-' The rest of Hallie's sentenced trailed off. She hadn't looked at the Minister instead stared blankly at the credenza before him. 'I think I'm seeing things, or people, or... I'm not sure what I'm doing here.'

Had Hallie been thinking straight then the voice inside her head would have sarcastically congratulated her on her great choice of words. Hallie wasn't thinking straight. She'd just witnessed her Father's ghost, a man who she'd been torn up over for the past month. The sighting of her Father was too much to take in, too much for the twenty year old to handle.

Hallie.  He had expected her but perhaps not this soon. He finished filling his tea mug, letting her stumble all over her words for a moment. He filled a second tea mug--one for her. Then he turned to face her.

"Why don't you start by sitting down," he said gently. "Then breathe.  Take a breath. It does wonders to calm oneself." He set the tea mug on the edge of his desk in front of her.  "Then try the tea. Decent tea solves everything."

He had had this debate in his head when he had found it necessary to extricate Robert Cooper from the continent.  What would this do to Hallie? Amelia had been in his thinking, albeit not as much since intel had her in Spain.  Chances were that she would be insulated from an abrupt face to face with her ex-husband.  Not so much with Hallie.  

Robert had been trying to provide some fatherly guidance for Hallie in the rare times she'd asked for it. But this time, when she came in so flustered, he already knew. It didn't take Sherlock Holmes to deduce. It was only a moment after Rick had gone. There could be no other reason. Unfortunately, she had seen him already.  Well, as an auror, she was entitled to information on British citizens.  Not necessarily about his work as an Unspeakable.  As Rick's daughter, Hallie deserved more.  Robert had decided to give her a bit.  Enough.  He couldn't give her everything, not if he were to salvage what was left of Rick Cooper.  Cooper could afford to lose no more.

He leaned on the desk and looked at her. "So, take your time.  And when you're ready, tell me what's up."

'Thank you.' Hallie replied a quiver in her voice as she took a seat and accepted the tea. Holding the mug up to her lips the blonde took a deep breath and calmly exhaled before taking a sip.

The tea was warm, warmer than expected. Perhaps it would have been wise for Hallie to have blown cool air onto the drink first although it brought Hallie to her senses slightly. Placing the mug on the table amidst a few gasps of scolded breaths Hallie took another breath thinking about where to begin.

The Gryffindor inside of her, the reckless side, wanted to blurt out all her feelings in one go regardless of the outcome but as an auror Hallie had learnt to think things through in her head first. She'd matured and maybe, on some higher level, it had all been to prepare her for moments like this.

'A month or so ago Tobias Aker from the Order came to speak it me.' Hallie began, choosing to start, well, at the start. 'He had questions about my Father and said that his name was slowly beginning to crop up, none of us knew why as he had died when I was little. Although,' This was the part Hallie was unsure about...

'Although the talk surrounding my Father was regarding his allegiance. Whether he was truly an Order member or a death eater. It didn't make sense for him to be a death eater, I tried to seek out reasons that he could be but I found nothing. The only thing is it still bothers me that people would even be debating this, especially since he died protecting us from death eaters.'

'I've been losing my focus over it all, I've been doubting my entire past, my purposes, who I, myself, truly am and now. Now I think I'm either seeing things or if I-' Hallie looked up to Robert from her downward stars at the mug.

'I think I just saw my Father and I don't understand.'

Hallie stood up and began to pace back and forth.

'He was supposed to be dead. He died saving us and now all of a sudden he's walking around the Ministry. And I'm not going crazy! I know who I saw, it wasn't like the other times when I've been thinking about him and thought I've seen him I'm one hundred percent sure it was him and I don't understand why he is here when he's supposedly dead. I don't understand why he would be leaving the Ministry with Michael from the direction of your office!.'

Hallie stopped pacing, not that she realised she had been. Nor had she noticed her hands had been running aggressively through her hair as she tried to make sense of the situation. She couldn't. There was no logical explanation to explain his being alive.

He listened to her suffer a bit of an implosion.  All he was getting was the confused blowback of what was all scrambled in her head.  He felt for her.  She had every right, and she was alright smart enough to piece together that this was his doing.  She was trying to short cut the excuses and sorely needed him to come straight to the point.

Robert was fine with coming to the point, really. Rick wouldn't be. Rick was going to have a melt down that it was all blown to hell already.  In fact, most likely, that was probably what poor Michael was having to deal with.  And if Robert's brief encounters with Rick were telling, on this issue at least, Rick was rigid. Unyielding. Robert understood that. Had he been in Rick's position, he'd have, himself, most likely been some sort of postal.  Ah, well, if Michael could manage Robert when the curse had him unpredictably and explosively violent, he'd probably manage Rick. Maybe.  Hopefully.

"Alright, wait," he said, hoping to slow her brain down just a tad.  He was moving into handling this in a debriefing format, a format Hallie was well familiar with and would, probably, just automatically shift into.  He hoped that would help her cope. The truth was, he was not her enemy. Nor Ricks. Keeping them in the dark, Robert didn't agree with now as he read the account. He didn't see that it had been the only option in play.  Certainly it was the best, the least risky, but the cost--crushing a family--no. Robert didn't believe in that. That cost had just been too high. And with it, had they, in fact, crush the very man they'd invested so much in? It was time to bring Rick home and to try to undo the damage. Hallie and Amelia needed to know.  And, Rick needed the question answered about whether he could salvage any part of himself, and any part of his relationship with the people he gave it all up for.
 
However, it did peak Robert's interest as to why Acker wanted more information than was in the Ministry dossier. Well, the accepted copy.  The classified file from Rick's role as an Unspeakable was something no one had seen except Robert. And it occured to him. It was the same damned file that was laying out in the open on his desk, with  big red "Classified","Eyes Only", "Minister of Magic" stamps all over it. He didn't change the calm expression on his face, but it was work for a brief moment while a flurry of obscenities raced through his brain. 

"Why was Acker fishing for information on your father? He has the same access to information on records of citizens as anyone else here,"  Robert asked calmly. When the one you're with is nigh onto hysterics, someone has to attempt to be calm anyway, he thought.  Well, that was partly true, and partly not. No one had access to information on the Unspeakables and it was just rather accepted. Only the Minister had that, and, in fact, most Unspeakables didn't entirely know who was an unspeakable and who was not.

"Unwind just a moment, and decide which rabbit trail you'd like to run down first.  Your father's existence or lack thereof? Or his allegience? Or what he was doing when you last saw him? Or the trail that answers was he ever the man you thought you knew?"  He knew how he'd have wanted the story told, but he wasn't sure in which order she was prepared to hear this.  He was seriously hoped he wouldn't have to open this proverbial worm can by having to tell her, "Oh, by the way, your father was never dead. Yup. That was him you saw just now, and my predecessors made sure you believed the web of lies."

Hallie simply stood there upon being asked to wait, her arms hanging limply by her side unsure what to do with herself. Her eyes were almost shimmering with tears at this point and it was only the fact that Hallie didn't exactly know what she was crying about which was holding the tears back.

'He said he'd heard a few whispers about my Dad.' Hallie replied at the mention of Tobias Acker. 'Rumours.'

So now the Minister was giving a Hallie a choice, wanting to know what she wanted to know first. The truth was that Hallie had no idea which bits held more important to her. Was it why her Father appears not to be dead? Or where he'd been for the last thirteen years that had been more important than being with his family? All Hallie knew was that she wanted to know everything.

'I would like to know everything, from the beginning, please.' Hallie asked after clearing her throat and bracing herself by clutching the back of the chair she was stood behind. Whatever the Minister was going to tell her Hallie knew it would swing at her like a wrecking ball and the last thing she wanted was to have a breakdown in the office.

'And...' An afterthought somehow found its way to the surface. 'And does my Mother know any of this? I don't think she would after he died, or left-' Hallie corrected herself, 'She was never the same. I don't think she knew but..?'

Her voice tailed off waiting for the Minister to respond.

He sighed, motioning for her to sit.  He went to the door, telling his new and rather incompetent secretary to make sure he wasn't disturbed. Then he closed the door.  

"God, I wish Millie were back," he sighed, frustrated.  "Woman needs an auror to find her way to her desk in the mornings."  He took a sip of his own tea.  

"This is a long, long tale, so settle in," he told her. "Before we start, ask yourself.  What would you do to save your family? What would your mother do to save you?  You were chosen as a Gryffindor for a specific reason.  Your strong desire for self sacrifice.  You got that from your father. Very definitely. Whatever you think you're capable of, I guarantee you got that from him. You were the only thing he had on his mind. You--and what kind of a world you would grow up in if he failed in his work.

"I'll settle this much for you right now.  Your father's alliance was never for anything else but for the greater good.  Never ever.  Whatever you heard or read about him being in the Death Eaters or the Order or flopping back and forth, it was necessary for his work.  His history as Unspeakable--and a very skilled one--goes back almost before you were born.  Almost. As it goes, his mentors were recruiting him for espionage from the time he started here in the mail room, right after his graduation from Hogwarts. And I know nothing was more important to him than your mother---and especially you.

"He only actually served as an auror long enough to complete his additional training as an Unspeakable. And he was an Unspeakable at the time you lost him. The mission he took on was because, at the time, there was no one that could do the undercover work that was necessary like he could.  Your father's metamorph gifts were, back then, the only way anyone might have a prayer of the mission not being a suicidal task. Without his contribution, I honestly don't know if wizarding  England would still be a free place.  He took the assignment solely because he couldn't deal with the thought that you or your mother might live in some sort of entrapment all your lives. So,..." he paused, "he put himself there in your place.  In all our places.  He knew the only way to keep you safe was if the entire world had no reason to track him, no reason to use you.

"Do you understand what I'm saying to you, Hallie?" he looked deliberately into her eyes.

Hallie smiled politely as Robert made, what Hallie understand, as small talk comments about his new assistant. Perhaps this was to diffuse any tension or to make Hallie feel more comfortable, maybe it was a sign that he was more down to earth and less intimidating than Hallie first thought upon their very first meeting.

Once seated Hallie decided to simply listen and let Robert's words flow into her mind, mull on them for a moment before replying.

Hallie was still confused. What Robert was saying didn't make sense, it went against everything that she thought of her Father. The Father she knew wouldn't have taken up some dangerous mission, sure he sacrificed himself defending their family... Or did he? That was the part Hallie was struggling with. She had seen his dead body with her own eyes, she'd memorized the sight of a pale faced man whose expression was blank as though he'd been frozen in time. She'd been to the funeral. Her Father had been killed at the hands of death eaters. Although had they actually been death eaters? It made sense that they would be owing to the fact it turned out that he was spying on both the factions, perhaps they had found out and decided to eliminate the information he'd collected? Or were that not death eaters after all?

There seemed to be loop holes that Hallie was being denied, she wanted to know everything.

'I don't understand.' Hallie said, looking up into the Ministers eyes. 'You said that he put himself somewhere. I don't understand where? I don't understand what was more important than being with his family? And I...'

Hallie paused, blinking away the tears.

'I saw him die. I was in the closet when it happened, when the death eaters came to kill him. We heard a bang then we sat and waited for a few minutes before emerging form the closet to find his-'

Her words cut from her.

'He was dead and now he isn't. It doesn't make sense!'

At this point Hallie's confusion had began to irritate her, irritate her to the point that she'd stood from the chair both hands holding the arms firmly as she stared deep into Robert's eyes.