THE UNSUCCESSFUL VISIT FROM Marianne left a bitter taste in Leo's mouth for the rest of the evening. For a while after he and Caitlyn went their separate ways, Leo couldn't help but wonder how things would have gone differently if he wouldn't have let his fathers words get under his skin so much. For all he knew, Caitlyn would have been just fine in the magical world if she had known about it. But after a bit, he was able to move on in a way. But after his mothers' visit, he couldn't help but start to wonder how things may have been different if he hadn't even tried to appease his parents. Nothing he did ever earned their approval anyway.

The next day as he made his way into the Ministry, it was a thought that was eating away at him. His life could have been very different by now, would it have been better? He'd never know for sure. For all he knew, Caitlyn had merely just been the first girl he had been serious enough about to really care. In a way, he hated the fact that he was even humoring the thought of her now. There was no reason to. He had no idea what had become of her, had she ended up in medical school? Had she met someone in Texas like she joked about? None of that should have mattered, he was in Europe now, and although he didn't know how serious things were with Mona, he knew it was serious enough that he felt guilty even thinking about Caitlyn.

"Have a nice day off?"

Leo snapped out of his thoughts as Cooleridge spoke to him as he approached his desk that sat across from Thomas'. "Could have been better." Leo confessed.

"It didn't go well then?" Cooleridge questioned, "Your mother visited you, didn't she?"

"Yeah, she wasn't exactly my first choice of company for the day." Leo replied as he sighed heavily before he made his way across the room to where his desk was.

His desk was untouched, no different from how he had left it the last time he had been there. He had been lucky to get a single day off, Scrimgeour was the type to tell you to just stick to desk duty if you didn't feel up to being out of the Ministry. So when Leo got a owl with a short but sweet letter from Scrimgeour telling him to take the day off, he didn't argue. But it definitely hadn't been spent the way he wanted to spend it and it definitely hadn't left him feeling refreshed for the day. Quite the opposite actually.

As Leo lowered himself down into his seat, he unfolded his copy of the daily prophet that he had picked up once he got to the ministry and saw that the from page was graced with an image of the four try-wizard champions once again, this time the four of them preparing for their first task. Then a smaller image was an image of Diggory holding a golden egg above his head triumphantly. Leo was a bit relieved that the dragons that had been brought by Charlie Weasley and his team from Romania were leaving. Hopefully that would mean Charlie Weasley wouldn't be in his seat at the Leaky Cauldron when he went there after he finished his shift.

"Black,"

Leo looked up from the paper towards Scrimgeour's office door, where he stood and waved for Leo to join him in his office while Lydia walked towards their desks. Keeping her eyes averted from him.

Leo dropped the paper down on his desk as he rose to his feet, "Hey," Leo said as Lydia made it to her desk. "what's he want?" he asked, "Anything I should know about?"

Lydia was quiet for a moment, "You should just go talk to him." she replied simply, sitting down at her desk.

Leo arched a brow and waited a second for her to say something else. But she didn't, instead she began digging through one of her drawers looking for something. So Leo turned away from the desks and made his way to Scrimgeour's office. Scrimgeour had made his way back to his desk, so Leo shut the office door behind him.

"Is something wrong?" Leo questioned as soon as the door latched behind him.

Scrimgeour sighed heavily as he motioned to one of the chairs before his desk for Leo. "There's just been a concerning report, Black." he replied, sighing heavily.

"Oh?" Leo was puzzled, "About me?"

"Did your mother come to see you yesterday?" Scrimgeour questioned.

Leo's eyebrows instantly pressed together, "Well, yeah..."

"What about the evening before? After you left work?"

"What? No. She wrote to me to ask if she could come visit me before she went back to America, but I didn't see her until yesterday." Leo replied.

Scrimgeour sighed heavily and rested both of his arms on his desk, "Your communication with your mother is concerning to the Minister of Magic, and I must say I don't disagree with him. She was a well known sympathizer of you-know-who, and with some of the rumors going around right now..."

"Wait," Leo said abruptly, "are you implying that I'm a sympathizer for Voldemort now too?"

"It's not a good look for yourself to be hanging around those who are, given your sisters trial and her arrest at the very place that the dark mark was seen." Scrimgeour said sharply in response, "I need to know that those in my office aren't having any other alliances. It worries the Minister and myself that you'd be in communication with someone who firstly see's nothing wrong with what happened at the world cup, and also wasn't exactly out of our sights the last time you-know-who was at large."

Leo couldn't help but let out a small laugh, "You're serious?" he asked, disbelief filled his voice. "Sir, I'm on your side. My mother can eat shit for all I care, I assure you. I-"

"Black, I want to believe you. I do," Scrimgeour paused, "but I also heard a disturbing report from Corner. Have you been changing reports from the jobs you two have been on over the last few weeks?"

Leo sighed heavily, "Sir, what did you want us to do? Arrest an old lady for being lonely?" he questioned, "Or a wizard who had too much to drink?"

"Black, I need to know that you're going to be doing your job by the book." Scrimgeour stated, "So until further notice, I'm going to need you to gather what you need from your desk and wait to hear from myself before you come back into work."

Leo's eyes widened as Scrimgeour spoke. "You want me to leave?" Leo questioned, "Until further notice?"

As soon as Leo stood from the chair in Scrimgeour's office, he could feel a ball of rage growing in the pit of his stomach as he moved across the office and left the room. Closing the door a bit rougher than he had intended to. Or maybe he had, he wasn't entirely sure. But he was sure that the one person who he thought had his back, was the same person who put the last nail in his coffin. How could he recover from this? It would be all over the Ministry why he was leaving, why he was no longer working. Even if Scrimgeour told him he could come back, his name would always be muddied. Not that it was spotless to begin with, but still. He had finally began to get through that, he had begun to earn trust from people. And now, that was all for nothing?

"Thanks, Corner," Leo began as he got to his desk. Lydia's eyes shot upward, finally landing on him. "seriously, thanks for having my back in there. Or was it just yours you were worried about?"

"Leo, he asked me about the cases, I didn't want to lie to him-"

Leo scoffed, "I'm sure you didn't mind letting me go down. Anything to get something so Lydia Corner can have just an ounce of respect around here, right? Prove that you're supposed to be here? Well guess what, Lydia, as soon as all these people know that you're willing to throw your own partner under the bus you'll be in just a big of a hole as you put me in."

"Leo, I'm sorry...I didn't think that you'd get fired-"

"Fired? Oh no, just suspended for now and the foreseeable future." Leo replied sharply as he yanked his jacket on before leaning down against the desk, "I've been doing this longer than you Corner, I've done more in the last year than you probably have since you got this job. So if all of that is nothing anymore because you wanted to earn a few points for your own career, I promise it won't be that easy whether I'm still your partner or not."

Leo turned sharply on his heals and left. He left the Ministry, and it seemed like with every step he took he was getting more angry. Not only had he just gotten off of desk duty, but he felt like he was finally starting to figure out just where it was he stood within their unit of auror's. He was the new guy still, but he was starting to gain a bit of respect. He was starting to not feel like his move from MCUSA hadn't been pointless, like he had made the right call to take the job.

As soon as Leo was above the Ministry of Magic, he apperated right then and there. Regardless if any muggles had seen him or not. As soon as his feet landed, he looked up at the sign for the Leaky Cauldron. Inside, it was still nearly empty. There was one couple sitting at a table already, but they each had breakfast sitting in front of them. And behind the counter, where Mona would be this evening was an older wizard who Leo had only seen on a handful of occasions. He was on the shorter side, Leo wasn't sure if it was because he was just short or if he had gotten shorter as he aged. He looked like he was probably going blind, and whether or not he could really hear was up for debate because usually when Leo saw him he was shouting into the kitchen and had to ask the cook to repeat himself a handful of times.

"Ramona isn't working until later today." the man announced, filling the Leaky Cauldron with his loud voice as soon as Leo made it half way to the bar.

"I know."

"Huh?"

"I know." Leo repeated, his tone filled with aggravation. "Can I have a gin, please?" Leo took his usual seat at the end of the bar.

"A what?"

"Gin."

"Sorry?"

"A gin, can I have a gin please?"

The man looked a bit taken aback by Leo's tone and loud response. "No need to shout."

Leo sighed heavily, "Sorry." he replied simply before rubbing the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb.

"I take it you've had a long night?" the man replied, standing across from Leo while a enchanted bottle half empty began to sloppily pour itself into a glass.

"Long morning, actually."

"Hm?"

Leo sighed heavily.

"I'm kidding," the man replied, "from what I read in the prophet you've had quite a bit of trouble since you got here."

Leo scoffed as the man turned around and grabbed the glass, and unlike Mona who would have at least tried to make the glass more presentable; the man set it down in front of Leo with droplets of gin still on the outside of the glass.

"You could say that..." Leo replied.

"But today must have been the icing on the cake if you're here already."

The Leaky Cauldron had a few more witches and wizards make their way in for breakfast, and then lunch. All while Leo enjoyed his drinks while the old man, which Leo learned was named Earnest Bollup, told Leo about all of his misfortunes since he had run the Leaky Cauldron. Leo figured it was his way of trying to make Leo feel a bit better about his morning. He even gave Leo lunch on the house, probably to keep Leo at his seat while he mingled with the other guests or got a room key for a wizard who was there for a room.

"Leo?"

Leo turned on his stool to see Mona walking towards him, confused as to why he was there at the beginning of her shift versus towards the end of it. "Surprise," Leo said, dramatically holding a hand up in the air briefly.

"Shouldn't you be at the Ministry?" Mona questioned.

Leo scoffed, "Nope," he replied, "and not for the foreseeable future either."

Mona rose a brow as she stepped up to the end of the bar and leaned on it, "And why is that?" she asked.

"Scrimgeour thinks it would be best if I don't work for awhile." Leo replied, "And Corner took a chance to really throw me under the bus, probably thinks it'll help her out in the long run."

Mona sighed heavily, "How long have you been here, Leo?"

Leo sighed a bit before glancing back towards the door, "Well," he paused, "the sun wasn't setting when I got here."

"You came here this morning?" she questioned.

"I had nowhere else to be."

It took a bit of convincing, but Mona made it quite clear that Leo had to leave. Not that he probably should, but he had to. Which, once Leo really considered how long he had been there, he knew she was right. Although, he had nowhere to be the next day. But showing up there the next day again probably wasn't going to be something that would be a good idea for him. Mona offered to help him get back to his apartment, the chances of him being able to apperate without getting splinched in his current state were next to none. But Leo instead opted for walking home, and as soon as he stepped out into the brisk evening air he felt like that was a mistake. His head spun and he had to take a brief moment to make sure he had his balance before he began to walk down the street.

It definitely wasn't the quickest way for him to get home. He had to stop quite a bit whenever his head started to spin. By the time he could finally see his apartment building, the sun had almost completely set and the street lights had begun to switch on. Which casted just enough light on a figure sitting outside the door to the building, on the steps with their chin resting on their knees. And as Leo got closer, he saw that it was possibly the last person Leo wanted to see; Lydia Corner.

"Finally..." she sighed, "I've been waiting here for hours it seems like."

"Well, seems you've wasted your time." Leo said with a heavy sigh, however she didn't let him step past her, she stood up abruptly and stood right in the middle of the doorway. "I have nothing to say to you, Lydia. Now if you'd please excuse me-"

"Well I have something to say to you." she said sternly, placing a finger on his chest before dropping both of her hands to her sides. "I'm sorry."

"It's a little late for that, you gave Scrimgeour more of a reason to get rid of me."

"Scrimgeour was following Fudges' lead, Leo." Lydia replied, "He has been ever since the Riddle Manor."

Leo sighed heavily, stepping back away from the steps and crossing his arms. "And today, you decided to save yourself and it cost me my job, Lydia."

"It didn't cost you your job, Leo. You're just suspended."

"Until further notice, Lydia. I've been in Scrimgeour's shoes. I know you might not remember, but taking this job was a downgrade to what my job was with MCUSA." Leo explained plainly, "Until further notice usually means we'll be looking for other options and if we can't find anyone we might call you back for grunt work."

"Like that would be any different than what Scrimgeour has been having us do."

Leo scoffed, "Lydia, do you know how difficult it will be for me to get a job as an auror again? I might as well go clean dragon shit."

Lydia cocked her head, "Leo, you're a good auror. You helped arrest your own sister. Nobody can look past that, you sided with the Ministry over your family."

At that moment, Leo realized just how much trouble he could be in if anyone found out about Sirius. Was he really siding with the Ministry if he was hiding Sirius? Cooleridge was doing the same, but if the Ministry found out, Leo wouldn't have just been fired. He would have been arrested.

"You're just saying this because you know your job is safe." Leo replied, "Now, excuse me."

"I'll try talking to Scrimgeour!" Lydia said quickly as Leo stepped past her, causing her to nearly fall off the steps. "Leo, you're a good partner. I'll try talking to him. Maybe I could get him to just desk you."

Leo stopped turned back towards her. "Since when do you call me a good partner. I was starting to think I was driving you crazy."

*unedited*