The office was uncharacteristically quiet. Jisoo always did complain that she could never get any work done here because of the noise pollution that matched that of a pub's during peak customer hours. But now she could hear every breath she took and every muscle she moved. She walked towards the long, dark-tiled hallway and stopped in front of the door to Jinyoung's office. 

She was here again, after almost tearing herself apart last night just to reach a final decision.

She had thrown last week's issue of the Daily Prophet into the fireplace, his face screaming at her as the pages burned. It's hard to forget that it's the same face she used to touch so lovingly under the moonlight when they snuck out to go stargazing, the same face that would laugh at her every time she tripped over her own two feet during their walks in Hogsmeade, the same face that looked at her, that night after she accepted her post as an Auror, with shock and disappointment to the point where he told her he couldn't be with her anymore and the same face Jisoo looked into one last time with their right hands clasped in each others' hold.

Jisoo had belatedly realized what a coward she'd become. Hiding in the anonymity of a muggle town, escaping her magical life and this magical world that she stumbled into when that Hogwarts letter came in the mail when she was eleven. She was running away from everything, including Taehyung. While her comrades, her friends, gave their life for the cause and did everything in their power to stop the Dark Lord despite experiencing the same pains and losses she herself had felt. She was ashamed and guilty when she looked at the obituaries pinrted on the Daily Prophet last night and cried at how devastated she was knowing that these people had once been so close to her and at how frustrated she was with herself because of how quickly she gave up.

"It's different," she cried out loud, trying to make herself feel less guilty. If anything, she was only being selfish and fearful at that point. "I lost so many people in one night. The most important people. They left them there to die."

But it's not all that different from what everyone else has experienced and suffered these past months. Enough is enough, she had decided in the end. 

She knocks once and the door to the Head of the Auror's office swings open by itself. Jinyoung is seated behind his desk in a plaid black and gray suit with his arms folded over the top; Seulgi is standing in front of him because the only other seat in Jinyoung’s office is being occupied by a man Jisoo didn’t think she’d see this early.

She's clearly surprised but she quickly regains her composure and feigns indifference as the man turns around in his chair to watch her enter the room. “Good day, Minister.” She says sombrely, as if she were speaking at a funeral. It might as well be her funeral. This meeting was inevitable from the moment she agreed to this arrangement, she knew this already but she just didn't expect for him to drop by so soon. 

The Minister of Magic bows his head curtly and the amused expression in his face tells her all she needs to know: he's not exactly jumping in joy at the return of arguably the best Auror the Ministry has produced to date, but he's also not cross with Jinyoung and Seulgi's decision of recruiting her back. “I thought you were a lost cause, Kim Jisoo. And I thought Jinyoung and Seulgi here were off their rockers trying to persuade you to join us again, but here you are. Wonders never cease, do they?”

From the corner of her eyes, she can see Seulgi inhale sharply and Jinyoung’s expression darkening. She shares their uneasy feelings and Jisoo had to give the two credit, they were risking their jobs and probably even their lives by promising to get her back on the force.

“Well, I’m here on a job and as soon as I’m finished, I’m leaving the Ministry for good this time.” Jisoo says, keeping her voice level. She detests every second that passes while they're in the same room and the way his eyes bore into hers as she stares back makes her either want to leave the office or kick him out of it. But of course, neither options are chosen and she's left internally groaning in complaint at his next words.  

The Minister regards her for a half a second before turning to Jinyoung. “I’d like a private word with her here in your office.” It came out more like a command rather than a request and Jinyoung, who had no power over the Minister of Magic as he was just the Head of a department, gave him a strained smiled and a tight-lipped “of course” before pulling Seulgi with him out of his own office.

Jisoo catches their eyes as they pass her and when the door closes as they leave, she’s left alone with the one person she didn’t want to be around with for the duration of her job. She clenches her fists as the atmosphere in the room intensifies drastically with the absence of the two other persons. She tries hard not sigh or pull out her wand; the latter action was very, very tempting to execute. 

“So, Ms. Kim,” The Minister leans back against the chair, not even bothering to look at Jisoo as he addresses her. His eyes are tiny black holes that could in your soul; she imagines that a dementor's kiss would feel more forgiving than looking directly into the Minister of Magic's eyes. She vaguely wonders that if he took a closer look inside of her, would he see all the things that she's hidden from them? “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised with your return to the Auror scene, so why are you back?”

Before her temper would get the best of her, Jisoo mentally counts to five to calm herself down. The Minister might have never predicted her return, true, especially after what happened a year ago that made her leave the Ministry and the wizarding world in the first place. Muggle-borns like Jisoo are never truly accepted in this world, and it took her a few years to truly realize this because even with the Dark Lord's pureblood supremacy agenda as he gradually rose to power. It had actually been the Ministry who opened her eyes to wizards and their injustice and discrimination towards muggles and muggle-borns. Their biggest betrayal that had destroyed her entire life. 

“I’m here to do the Ministry’s job for them, as always.” She could suppress her emotions but not her her ill-mannered tongue. Jisoo didn’t particularly care, technically she wasn’t a Ministry employee anymore anyway. She had long snipped the leash they had tied around her by the neck. And it's not like anything good came out of her up to the Minister. “I’m here mainly because of the task at hand, and not because of anything else. Don’t get the wrong idea, Minister.”

Any wizard who dared speak to the Minister like that would have their throats slit and their tongues cut away from them but Jisoo is perhaps the only living wizard the Minister can excuse from such an offensive atrocity because as much as he wanted to deny the fact that they needed her in this operation, he couldn’t.

It was the truth, plain and clear and simple. They needed her.

And Jisoo knows this very well.

The Minister stood on his feet and looked at her with the same amused expression from earlier to cover up his rising anger inside. Everyone knew the Minister was a man of short temper, he was sort of like Jisoo in that way and to the outside source, it would seem like that was the main reason for the beef between them: two hotheads with their blood pressure always on the higher end and either one refusing to back down so easily. In reality, it was so much more than that and Jisoo has to remind him every chance she gets. 

But everyone also knows that the Minister has a heart of stone and an emotional range of a teaspoon so he will always look unfazed with whatever sentiments you throw at him. “I wish you the best of luck in your mission nonetheless, you will need it. Though I truly doubt you’d end up as another discarded dead body in the pile of dead bodies Kim Taehyung has collected over the months, I still worry.” Apart from that, he was also a man of pride and reputation. The latter being tarnished whenever he was at the presence of Jisoo, thus began this old game of cat and mouse between them. 

“You worry for no one but yourself.” The words strike venomously at her prey and she feels a sense of satisfaction course through her system when she sees the Minister’s expression change but it's not quite enough for her. She wants him to hurt the way she had at his hands. He was no better than the Dark Lord, something Jisoo has always loathed him for. 

He walks over to her and only stops when he’s inside her personal space. Too close. He's so close that she can smell his scent, wormwood and coffee and egotistical masculinity. “Don’t think I won’t have you punished for your spiteful tongue, Ms. Kim. You’re still subjected to Ministry rules and regulations while you’re here doing your job.” He said scathingly. “One day you will find yourself being punished like the child that you still are.”

Jisoo shakes her head and laughs silently to herself. “Oh, Minister,” she takes a step away from him. “You’ve already punished me enough by failing to protect my family, don’t you think?”

Kwon Jiyong straightens his coat and looks away from her to signal that he was done playing this game. For now. “You and I both know that the death of your family was not my mistake.” He says with a tone of finality before heading for the door. His hand is on the handle before he pauses, a coy smirk in his voice and Jisoo is reminded just exactly how heartless the Minister can be. “Good day to you too, Ms. Kim.”

Jinyoung enters his own office again but instead of Seulgi walking behind him, it's another familiar face that unlike the Minister, Jisoo is relieved to see. 

"Jisoo, so glad you're back!" Im Nayeon bounds up to her, clasping her hands against Jisoo's and smiling brightly, her front teeth showing and resembling a bunny's. She remembers her being teased like hell for that back in Hogwarts but look at her now; pretty and gorgeous and enthusiastic despite the current state they were in. Jisoo wished she could have Nayeon's positivity, she could really need some right now. "Jinyoung just informed me about your decision to help the Minis - I mean, us, the Aurors." she caught herself at the last moment.

Jisoo smiles back at her, pretending like she hadn't heard it. "It's good to see you again, Nayeon." she says sincerely. 

Judging by the looks on Jinyoung's face as he sat back down behind his desk, he's not going to ask about Jisoo’s conversation with the Minister which she was secretly grateful for. She's still shaken by his sudden visitation and their conversation earlier, but she refuses to let it interfere or get in the way today. 

“Now, on to pressing matters,” Jinyoung says right away, clearly trying to dismiss the fact that he just got shooed out of his own office a minute ago. There was a stack of papers on top of his desk, he grabbed the topmost one and skimmed through its contents before handing it over to Jisoo. “We found an informant in a muggle village west from here. He's unlisted from the Ministry's records but his family - mom, dad and sister - are not. They're listed, and he doesn't have his own personal file but his name is under his family's files. He reached out voluntarily to the Ministry."

Jisoo looked at the paper in her hands and her eyebrows furrowed together. “An informant?” 

“Yes," Nayeon pips from behind Jisoo. “Sometimes people spot Death Eaters in the rural areas and we have reward money for them if they came out with credible information. If you can track and follow even just one of his minions, they’re bound to lead you to Taehyung or even to the Dark Lord.”

“And this informant in particular told us about spotting Taehyung in their area for a few days now; you better get a move on.” Jinyoung suggested. “I know you want to work alone on this but I still think it’s better to bring a partner with you in case –“

“No.” Jisoo folded the piece of paper and tucked it in her jean pocket. She brandished out her wand. “The more people that are involved in this, the higher the chances of r