Chapter Five
The next two days were some of the strangest of Harry's life and considering that he had spent more than four years training and hunting Voldemort, that was saying something. Daphne and Parvati showed up at Potter Manor about two hours after Harry. Harry escorted the two of them to a room on the opposite side of the third floor. Quite literally, in fact. If you walked out of Harry's bedroom door and looked across the balcony that overlooked the ballroom, you could see the door to Daphne's room. Harry thought that it was a good way to show Daphne that he was there for her without feeling like they were living on top of each other.
Unfortunately, that didn't make the process of getting used to each other any easier. Once Daphne was settled in, Parvati left for dinner with her sister. Harry had hoped that she would come back at some point before they returned to the Ministry on Monday but that wasn't the case and Harry and Daphne were left alone in Harry's house for the entire weekend.
The first night had been the worst. Harry had started making dinner before he realized that he was only making enough food for one person. When Harry went to her room to ask her if she wanted dinner, she told him that she wasn't hungry. However, only an hour after Harry finished cleaning up the kitchen, Harry heard the sounds of someone rummaging through the cabinets in the kitchen from his bedroom. He knew that he shouldn't have been offended that she didn't want to eat dinner with him. In a way, he had trapped her in his home, more or less against her will.
Still, Harry had hoped that they would at least be able to interact normally. He didn't know Daphne that well. He only barely knew her through The Legion and that had been years ago. But she had chosen to be an Auror for a reason and Harry was genuinely curious to find out what that reason was. Unfortunately, it didn't look like he'd be learning any particular secrets about Daphne Greengrass anytime soon.
By the time Harry and Daphne Apparated to the Ministry on Monday, Harry had gotten a report that Kliner had returned from Hungary, which meant that it was time for the entirety of the SAF to sit down and go through the information they had. Harry gave the Aurors the morning to finish compiling their reports and after lunch, they commandeered the largest conference room the Aurors had, each of them putting up a board of information on their target.
"This looks like great work," Harry said as he scanned the information around the room. "Now, here's what we're going to do: each of you will get the opportunity to present your information. As we go on, any patterns that we notice go on the board. Those will be our first priorities. Any connections that we notice between the people will also go on the board. Those will be our second priority. Finally, if there are any pressing questions that still need answered about these cases, those will go on the board and if neither of the first two areas pan out, we can address those."
"Now, we're going to do these in chronological order," Harry said before he looked to Michael Kliner, the youngest of the three Senior Aurors on the team. "Michael, you're up."
"Yes, sir," Kliner replied. "The first of the murders that Mr. Potter here has attributed to He Who Must Not Be Named is-"
"Voldemort," Harry insisted.
Kliner looked at Harry strangely
"Excuse me?" Kliner said, clearly unhappy that he had been interrupted.
"His name is Tom Riddle or Voldemort," Harry stated. "There are no other acceptable names. If you can't use his name, then there's the door."
The room went silent as Harry stared Kliner down. They were the team tasked with bringing Voldemort down. If they couldn't use his name, then, in Harry's mind, they had no business being there.
"Of course, sir," Kliner replied, although Harry couldn't help but notice that he was starting to sweat a bit more than usual. "This was the first murder attributed to...V-oldemort after Godric's Hollow. The target was a man named Nikola Forrest: a native of the Ukraine, sixty-seven years old. According to his neighbors in Budapest, Nikola was a quiet man who they rarely saw, despite the fact that they practically lived on top of each other."
"Unlike the other cases, Forrest wasn't an expert of any kind. He was a Healer, an average one, if the locals are to be believed. He apparently worked at an independent hospital just outside of the city. They used magic to heal Muggles who couldn't afford to go to a doctor, a stark, if common, violation of the Statute of Secrecy. He had no friends, his coworkers said that they barely knew him, and his neighbors knew him less. He didn't go to any sort of religious gatherings nor was he involved in his community in any meaningful way."
"Normally, I wouldn't think anything of this, but when I went to Kiev to get more information on him, I encountered something strange. According to the Ukrainian Ministry, there is no record of any person named Nikola Forrest having ever existed."
"What do you mean?" Ron asked.
"I mean, according to them, there are no records of birth, residency, employment, education, or any other form of documentation that could be traced back to him. What's more confusing was that when the Hungarians entered his home, they discovered Muggle passports, documentation from Ministries all around the world, all of them under different names."
"What do the Hungarians believe?" said Harry.
"They believe that Forrest was some kind of spy, either a mercenary of some kind or an assassin," Kliner replied, "which begs the question: why would Voldemort kill someone like that?"
Harry had his own suspicions. Harry had been present when the Hungarian Ministry had visited Forrest's apartment. It had only been a few days after his duel with Voldemort and he and Dumbledore had been trying to find Voldemort in the city before he could slip through. Then, for the first time in more than a year, a wizard was murdered by another wizard.
Neither Harry nor Dumbledore had believed that was a coincidence, so Harry had immediately got in contact with the Ministry to assist with the investigation. When Harry had entered the apartment, he had immediately known that this place was nothing more than a sham. Nikola Forrest didn't have any records because Nikola Forrest didn't exist. He was an identity, a cover. The two of them had spent more than two weeks in Budapest trying to help the Hungarians figure out who had murdered Forrest, why, and, most importantly, who Forrest actually was with no results.
"Alright, so we have no actionable information," Harry said. "But we do have suspicions about the identity of Nikola Forrest. Maybe if we learn his true identity, we learn why Voldemort actually wanted him?"
Harry took a moment to write a few notes on the board about Nikola Forrest before he turned back to the room.
"Ron, you are next," Harry said. Ron gave him a nod and then headed to the front of the room. Ron gave a flick of his wand towards a projector that had been set up in the middle of the room. Immediately, the image of a woman with dark brown skin and long, white hair displayed on the wall.
"This is Kirabo Okeke," Ron said. "Died at age thirty-three under mysterious circumstances. The Somalian Ministry refused to admit that she was murdered, even after I visited with them, and despite the fact that all evidence points to her being killed with the Killing Curse."
"Why?" Harry asked.
"First, Okeke was a fringe member of their society. She was Ethiopian by birth and the Somalian Ministry is notoriously insular due to the consistent level of conflict among most of the Muggles there. Second, she studied the effects of magic on Muggles. To most in her community, the mixing of Muggles and magic in such a blatant way was offensive. They aren't necessarily against Muggleborn, but they absolutely don't believe in going back and forth. If a Muggleborn is determined to have magical abilities, they are practically ordered to cease contact with their Muggle family."
"But Okeke's research wasn't just on the effects of magic, but on what she called "Latent Magic Theory." More or less, she believed that every person on the planet has some form of magic in them. It's why the Killing Curse works. It doesn't kill a person, at least not in her book. Instead, it strips a person of their magic, separating them from the thing that keeps them alive."
"That's still killing them," Williamson said, which garnered a chuckle from everyone in the room.
"Yes, but it would explain why people who are killed using the Killing Curse haven't seem to have experienced any physical effects," Harry replied. "Anything else? Any irregularities?"
Ron shook his head. Harry went to the board and wrote 'latent magic theory' under the first category.
"Parvati, you're up,"
Unlike Ron, Parvati didn't make her way to the front of the room. Instead, she stood and just as the projector shut off, she started giving her briefing from her chair.
"Mohinder Jain was one of the world's leading authorities on ritualistic magic. At one hundred and fifty-four years old, he may have been the oldest wizard alive when he died. The beginnings of Indian culture, unlike most of Europe, learned their magic via rituals. While the magic was much more difficult to perform, it usually had the advantage of being permanent. You cast a ritual to gain strength, then you gained it forever, or until another ritual took it away."
"Unfortunately, most of the details of these rituals were lost over the last several millennia. Jain, who was famously friendly with Albus Dumbledore, had spent much of the last seventy years living in the jungle, researching mostly in the ruins of the city of Lothal. There, they used ritualistic magic to extend the lives of their family members, allowing them to live unnaturally long lives. Some of Jain's records seemed to indicate that there were some citizens of Lothal that lived to be almost four hundred years old."
That certainly piqued Harry's interest. Anything related to extending or prolonging life was definitely something that Voldemort was interested in.
"Anything strange about the investigation?"
"Beside the fact that he wasn't murdered, you mean?" Parvati said with a smirk.
"Excuse me?" Harry replied.
"He wasn't murdered," Parvati repeated. "While there was definitely someone there when he died, likely Voldemort himself, Jain had been sick for weeks. In the end, he died from a stroke caused by his illness. The only reason the Indians even investigated was because his research went missing."
While that didn't mean that Voldemort wouldn't have killed him, Harry agreed that was something of note and put it on the board next to ritual magic.
Daphne Greengrass went next. She told them all about Ji-Soo Chung, a Korean researcher who had been visiting The Philippines when he was brutally murdered. Chung studied the nature of magic itself and how it interacted with the world around them.
"In particular, he was interested in places of power. He called them shatterpoints, places where the natural magic of the earth created magical anomalies. According to his research, Hogwarts sits on one as do most of the other magical schools around the world. These shatterpoints create magic that is more powerful than in other places. Most of these places are hidden in the wilderness where magic has been left to grow in the absence of civilization."
Williamson then told them about Shazi Karimi. Karimi was famous for her study of the Pyramids of Giza. She had spent the last ninety years performing a series of experiments on the Pyramids.
"There's evidence to suggest that the Pyramids were some sort of magical conduit," Williamson stated.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"Well, Karimi's work actually related to Chung's work on shatterpoints. While Chung's work was more related to natural occurrences, Karimi believed that the ancient Egyptians built the Pyramids to channel incredible amounts of magical energy in order to view the past. There are even some suggestions that their work inspired the first Penseive."
Harry considered this for a moment. Obviously, there was the already mentioned connection between Chung and Karimi's work. But the ability to view the past was not something that Harry expected Voldemort would ever need. Voldemort did not look backwards. Honestly, it was one of his biggest weaknesses: his failure to learn from his mistakes.
If he didn't want to view the past, what else could he do with that kind of power? Harry wrote that question on the board as he thought it and then turned to Goran, who had traveled to the United States to investigate the deaths of Samuel Watcher and Kleio Argyris.
"I looked into Watcher's death," Goran started, "but there was nothing much more to add. He was clearly murdered and his research was, as Harry noted, related to the idea of multiple realities. The only thing that could be added was that Watcher had been in the middle of working on a prototype device that was also taken alongside his research. However, no one knew what the device did or how it worked and the notes about it were taken along it with it."
"Argryis was a former Greek citizen, but she had lived in the United States since 1987. Over the years, she had spent most of his time studying the various indiginous people of North America, traveling all over the continent. However, in the last decade, she had focused on the Cherokee people."
"Why them specifically?"
"She had learned of a custom by the Cherokee that seemed to defy everything we know about magic. Every year on the summer solstice, the young men of the Cherokee would sit in a circle and pray to the sun for strength. According to Muggle researchers, there is a period of almost four hundred years where the men of the Cherokee lived almost fifteen years longer than their contemporaries."
"I'm sorry, but what the hell does this have to do with magic?" Kliner asked.
"Muggle science can't account for the difference," Goran replied. "It was Argyris' belief that this was a magical effect brought on by the natural magical energies of the solstice. All power on the earth is derived from the sun in some way and this includes magic. Because the sun is present longer on the solstice, it's the day when the most energy is present. She's also studied a similar effect among the Aborigine of the Outback."
Harry wrote "solstice magic" on the board next to the rest of the information they had gathered and then stepped back and attempted to summarize.
"We have magic as life itself, rituals, shatterpoints, magical conduits for viewing the past, rituals related to longevity, and healing, although that last one is dubious," Harry stated.
"Not to mention multiple realities," Ron added.
"Of course," Harry said as he added it to the board. "Thoughts?"
"There are definitely some connections to be made here," Parvati replied. "Two separate kinds of rituals, two different ways of channelling magical energy, and two forms of magic connecting life."
"It's almost as if he's looking for options," Williamson added. "Like he knows what he wants to do, but isn't exactly sure how to go about it."
"So he's just globetrotting and murdering people who researched those things?" Daphne asked. "That doesn't make any sense."
It wouldn't make sense to most people, but it made absolute sense for Voldemort. Riddle was powerful, talented, but entirely willing to take the short route if it was offered to him. He had attempted to kill Harry as a child for that very same reason.
Sure, Voldemort could have spent the next several years researching exactly what he was looking for. But that information was already out there. All he had to do was reach out his hand and take it, killing anyone who stood between him and what he wanted. Harry couldn't decide if he killed these people so that they couldn't relay their research to anyone else or because he had asked them sensitive questions about their fields of study that would have given Harry hints about what Voldemort was doing.
As it was, Harry couldn't put the pieces of this puzzle together. Not yet, anyway. But, he knew someone who could help.
"This is really good work everyone," Harry said. "I want each of you to write up a brief on your target. Put them on my desk by the end of the day tomorrow. I'm going to pull in some outside resources to see if they can't help us."
Ron laughed in the back of the room.
"Tell Hermione I said hi."
Sure enough, just a few minutes later, Harry was entering Hermione's office. This office was different from the first office that she had occupied during her time at the Ministry, mostly because this was an actual office. Her first office had been a small closet in the lowest level of the Ministry where the janitorial services for the Ministry controlled the atmospheric charms and runes that kept the temperature regulated. Of course, she had been an assistant to an assistant to an Assistant Head of a Department, so the fact that she had an office at all was incredible.
Just a few years later, she now had a rather large office of her own right next door to her boss, Amelia Bones. Currently, most of the contents of the office were still in a box in the far corner of the room. Harry imagined that if he came back in six months, that box would likely still be there.
"Mr. Potter?" Hermione said as she looked up for her work, a bright smile on her face. "What can I do for you?"
Harry took a seat across from her. Then, he spent the next ten minutes summarizing the information that the Aurors of the SAF had found. When he was done, he handed her a brief summary of the initial connections that they had already made.
"Thoughts?"
Hermione took one look at the paper in front of her and shook her head.
"I think your handwriting is still garbage," Hermione said as she reached into her desk and pulled out a pair of glasses.
"When did you get glasses?" Harry asked.
"Two years ago," Hermione said, her eyes peering out over the top of her glasses. The image was very much like a younger version of Minerva McGonagall. If that hadn't cooled his heart completely, then the knowledge that his best friend had gotten glasses two years earlier and he hadn't known did the rest of the job.
"Right," Harry said awkwardly. "Sorry."
"Stop apologizing," Hermione ordered. "You were gone. You had good reasons. Do I wish you had been around more? Yes. Do I understand why you left? Also, yes. Do I wish that you'd stop disappearing without warning? For the third time, yes. Does your apology help with any of that? Not at all."
"Ouch."
"It's been a rough stretch for you. It's been a rough stretch for us all. I'm so happy that you're back. I don't want to spend all of the time that you're here relitigating all the time that you weren't here. I'll leave that to Parvati."
Harry couldn't help but smile. He knew that Hermione was not about to let him off the hook entirely, but he also appreciated that she was attempting to simply move on. She was glad that he was back and for that, Harry was happy.
"As for this, I'm certain that if I took a closer look, I'd be able to help."
"Great! When can you come down?"
"I can't," Hermione replied. "I'm not an Auror. I don't work for the SAF. I can't just hop down there and jump into an open investigation. This isn't Hogwarts, Harry."
"I know it's not, but that doesn't change the fact that I need you."
Hermione blushed at Harry's praise but eventually composed herself enough to refute his claim.
"That might have been true at Hogwarts, but I highly doubt that's the case now."
"We both know that I understand people. You understand patterns. You see things as they are. Whether or not I know more magic is not important at this point. I need another set of eyes. I also need someone that's going to keep me grounded, someone that will temper my instinct to leap without looking."
"Parvati can't do that? Ron can't?"
"When has Ron ever pulled anyone back? At least when spiders weren't involved?"
"Touche."
"Hermione," Harry said seriously. "I need you. I've known most of this information for weeks. When I was traveling, this is where Dumbledore and I went. Hell, I was present for three of the crime scene investigations."
"Then why did you send Aurors halfway around the world to investigate?"
"Because I wasn't necessarily there...legally in all cases," Harry replied. "Besides, I wanted the rest of the team to get a look at it. My point is that I've had about seventy percent of this information since I came back. It's why I came back and I can't figure it out. I've spent dozens of hours going over all of this and I can't make sense of it."
"Don't you have an entire team of Aurors to help you?"
"I do," Harry admitted. "But outside of Ron and Parvati, I don't know them and they don't know me. I need someone there who knows how I work, who knows who I am. That's you. Please, Hermione, don't make me beg."
Hermione didn't react right away. When she did, she leaned back in her chair and considered exactly what Harry was asking. Harry knew that she wanted to help. She loved puzzles and figuring out their solution, but there was something stopping her from jumping up to help.
"I can't do it without Amelia's permission," Hermione finally said. "I really want to, but I can't."
"Then I'll get Amelia's permission," Harry said.
Hermione laughed. "Good luck with that."
Harry walked out of Hermione's office and immediately went to the office next door. While Hermione's office was a single room, Amelia's was a series of offices and waiting areas, ensuring that if you wanted to see the Head of the DMLE, then you needed to be willing to wait. Most people would have let Harry skip those extra offices, but Amelia Bones wasn't most people.
After an hour of being shuffled around her office by her staff, Harry was finally put face-to-face with Amelia Bones who, to Harry's complete lack of surprise, did not seem excited to see him. In the weeks after the Battle of Godric's Hollow and the retaking of the Ministry, there was a reckoning of sorts at the Ministry of Magic, particularly for its Minister of Magic. People obviously didn't like the fact that the Ministry had been unprepared for Voldemort's attack. But even more than that, the Wizengamot and the citizens of wizarding Britain didn't care for the fact that Amelia Bones had effectively been superseded by her own Head Auror and a sixteen-year-old in the process of retaking the Ministry. Britain had long been one of the most influential Ministries in the magical world and its leader was expected to inspire confidence. The fact remained that, after The Battle of Godric's Hollow, foreign leaders were lining up to meet with Harry at Kingsley's memorial.
Meanwhile, Amelia Bones was largely ignored.
Eventually, a series of hearings and investigative committee meetings were held in the Wizengamot and through those, it was revealed that Amelia Bones had known far more about the Death Eaters than she had let on. However, in the name of "public calm," she had actively decided not to reveal that information to the public, leading to the Battle of Hogwarts and Voldemort's takeover of the Ministry. That would have been fine if she had done a better job of preparing the Ministry. But she didn't do that either for fear that someone would catch on that they were escalating their defensive protocols while telling their citizens that Voldemort was no real threat to the Ministry.
While there were dozens of people who were involved in those decisions, Amelia Bones was the one who took the fall. Less than a week later, the members of the Wizengamot passed a vote of no confidence in the Minister of Magic and removed her from her post. While she did garner some support in her bid to reclaim her place, a large majority of the Wizengamot supported Percy Weasley in her place.
Personally, Harry didn't want either of them in the job, but given a choice, he would gladly have Amelia over Percy.
After a year away from the Ministry, Amelia was asked to reclaim her place as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement after the previous Head of the DMLE had become a permanent resident of St. Mungo's after a run-in with Antonin Dolohov. Several people had been considered for the role including John Dawlish, Amos Diggory, and Tonks herself. But Dawlish was largely seen as Percy's lapdog, Diggory had plenty of enemies in the Wizengamot, and Tonks was considered too apolitical for the position. That left former Minister of Magic and DMLE Head Amelia Bones as the safest choice, someone who would do the job, play the political game, but had no real chance of using the position to leapfrog Percy.
Amelia wasn't popular among the populace, but she had power and Percy listened to her, which meant that she had influence. In this instance, she was Hermione's boss and that was all Harry particularly cared about.
"Mr. Potter, to what do I owe this immense pleasure?"
Amelia also believed that had Harry stepped up in her defense, she would have remained as Minister. At the time, Harry had no interest in keeping her as Minister, but if he had known that Percy would have replaced her, he might have done more about it.
That was years past now and Harry couldn't bother worrying about it. Amelia, on the other hand, was clearly not a fan of his. It probably didn't help that Percy had appointed Harry to work with the SAF without even consulting with Amelia.
That, thankfully, was between Amelia and Percy.
"Madam Bones," Harry said respectfully.
"Cut the shit, Potter," Amelia immediately snapped back. "The only reason that I allowed you into my office is because I can't be seen turning you away or I'll lose my job...again."
Harry rolled his eyes. "It wasn't my fault that you lost your job the first time, Amelia. You made choices. People didn't like them and they said as much."
"Choices that I might not have had to make if you and Dumbledore had been more supportive."
"Well, you'll have to talk to Albus about that, but my support isn't free and you hadn't earned it yet," Harry replied. "Listen, I'm not here to answer your complaints. I need to borrow Hermione for a few weeks."
Amelia laughed.
"Hermione Granger? My chief advisor? That same Hermione Granger?"
"Yes."
"What in Merlin's name would lead you to believe that I would even consider this request?"
"Because without her, it will take even longer to figure out what Voldemort is doing or where he is."
"That's assuming he's still alive."
There was a theory out there that Voldemort had died at some point during his exile. This particular rumor was started mostly by non-Death Eater Purebloods who wanted to reclaim their "movement" from the hands of people like Antonin Dolohov or Tom Riddle. While most believed it to be nothing more than wishful thinking, there were enough people out there who believed it to make Harry worried about the kind of support he would get moving forward, especially if the Head of the DMLE believed it as well.
"You don't honestly believe that, do you?"
Amelia glared at him. "If you want Granger, insulting my intelligence isn't the best way to go about it."
"More people believe that garbage than I would like, including some people that I once considered intelligent," Harry replied. "I have a team of Aurors who have compiled a great deal of information on what Voldemort is looking for. But I can't connect these pieces. I need someone with a mind like Hermione's."
"You and me, both," Amelia replied. "There are so few competent people in the Ministry anymore and your friend happens to be one of the best."
"I've only known that since I was eleven."
"Then you'll know how valuable she is," Amelia added. "Even in the last few weeks, she has become essential to this Department. I can't afford to lose her."
"And if Voldemort finds whatever he's looking for, then that won't matter one bit," Harry countered. "What we're doing matters more than anything you could possibly be doing. Without us, without her, I can't anticipate what Voldemort will do, but I know that it's going to be bad for all of us."
"And I appreciate that, but-"
"There's no 'but' here, Amelia!" Harry shouted as he stood and slammed his hands on her desk. "Merlin, this is why no one wanted you as Minister. We're in a war, but you are so concerned with making sure that everything runs smoothly. Nothing's going to run smoothly if we're all dead and if Voldemort succeeds, that's what's going to happen! You, me, Hermione, Percy, all of us: DEAD!"
Amelia hadn't moved. In fact, as Harry stood over her, his nostrils flared, she hadn't even blinked.
"Are you quite done?" Amelia replied evenly.
"Are you going to let Hermione work with the SAF?" Harry growled.
"No."
"Then, no, I'm not done," Harry said.
"Do what you must," Amelia said as she looked back at her work. Harry was frustrated, but he knew that he needed to be smart. Blunt force wasn't going to work with Amelia, but he knew someone else that it would work on.
"I wonder what Percy will say about this."
The words immediately had the effect that Harry was looking for as Amelia's quill froze at the mention of Percy's name. A beat later, she looked up at Harry.
"You would go to the Minister of Magic about this?"
"Percy's soft," Harry replied. "He'll give me what I want."
"I could tell him that you said that."
"I've said it to his face before, so go ahead. Meanwhile, he'll be authorizing Hermione's immediate transfer and yelling at you for causing problems for him. I've only just come home and The Prophet is already dragging him through the mud. The last thing he wants right now is a pissing match between me and you."
Harry knew that this was true, but he also knew that Amelia could little afford a public feud with either Percy or Harry. She might have power now, but her standing in the Ministry was precarious. Another faux pas and she would be out and judging by the look of her face, she knew it was well.
"Very well," Amelia said through pursed lips. "I will inform Miss Granger of her new post and she will join you in the morning."
"Thank you," Harry said pleasantly as he headed towards the door. "I appreciate it."
"A word before you go, Mr. Potter?" Amelia said just as Harry reached the door. When he turned back to her, her expression hadn't changed any, but Harry could tell that she was upset.
"You've been back less than a month. In that time, you have successfully run over the Minister of Magic and the Head of the DMLE. The people regard you as a hero and you are quite gifted, so we tolerate your rather bullish attitude. But, mark my words, there will come a day when you finally push too far."
"If Voldemort dies in the process, that's perfectly fine with me," Harry replied simply.
"Of course. You have the luxury of single-mindedness. The rest of us have to consider the country as a whole."
"And I appreciate that," Harry said honestly. "But if I don't do my job, then there's not going to be a country to consider."
"You are right, of course," Amelia said, although Harry could sense the insincerity in her voice. "Consider something though: if you manage to defeat Voldemort, you will be forced to live the rest of your life working alongside those that you've trampled. Eventually, people will tire of being trod on by the great Harry Potter. Even your celebrity will only protect you so far. I know that you don't care if I think highly of you. In fact, we're all well aware that you care very little about our opinion of you. But you do care about how your friends feel about you, I'm sure. I wonder how Hermione Granger will react to your ruthlessness."
Harry laughed. Clearly, Amelia didn't know Hermione as well as she thought.
"Ask Marietta Edgecombe."
That night, Harry didn't go home right away. Instead, he Apparated to a small house on The Isle of Man. This was where Albus Dumbledore had chosen to spend his final days. Over the last few years, it became abundantly clear that Dumbledore's body, now well over one hundred and twenty years old, was not going to last much longer. With each passing day, the amount of time that he spent on his feet lessened as the amount of time that he spent seated or lying down grew.
Dumbledore was dying, there was no question about it. However, Harry thanked the stars that of all the things Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore had lost, his mind was not one of them. Secretly, Harry had been sending Dumbledore everything that he discovered about Voldemort's activities from the SAF. While Harry had learned more in the last five years than most people would learn in a lifetime, that still didn't even begin to compare to the near-encyclopedic amount of knowledge that was tucked away inside Dumbledore's mind.
Tonight, however, Harry wasn't going to talk about shatterpoints or solstice rituals. He was going to have dinner with his mentor. Over the last few years, Harry's relationship with Dumbledore was likely the only one that had actually improved. While Dumbledore had proven to be a surprisingly brutal teacher, he had also taken care of Harry. Every time Harry failed to pick up a skill, he would forgo sleep and stay up practicing with Harry until he had perfected it.
It wasn't lost on Harry that Dumbledore probably would have been much healthier for much longer if he had just remained at Hogwarts. Hell, he could have simply stayed at home and read and studied and lived his twilight years in peace. Instead, he took Harry and spent years working with him for fourteen hours a day, seven days a week. For as hard as it must have been for Harry, he was at least seventeen. Dumbledore was doing the same thing even though he was a century older than Harry.
As always, the meal was surprisingly good. During their time away, Dumbledore had revealed that cooking had always been one of his favorite hobbies. While he may have eaten what the house elves cooked during the year, he often spent hours a day in his kitchen during his summers away from the castle, cooking and baking, experimenting with sugar and spice in the same way that he had with frog spawn as a youth.
"It's far less dangerous and far more appetizing in my old age," Dumbledore had said at the time.
After dinner was over, Harry and Dumbledore retreated to his back porch where they shared a bottle of firewhiskey and looked out over the Irish Sea.
"How are you finding life back in the world?" Dumbledore asked him.
"It's not easy," Harry admitted. "Everything has changed. I've changed."
"That you have," Dumbledore replied casually. "I imagine that there are days where you wish that you could go back to our cabin in Sweden."
"I don't know that I would go that far," Harry replied. "But, I do think I wish I could go back to a life that was simpler."
"You've lived quite the complicated life," Dumbledore said. "It's only natural to appreciate mundanity."
"It's not that. There's a complexity to being back that worries me. When I was away, it was easy to focus on the mission: kill Voldemort. It was pure. It was refined. Now, there's pieces to the puzzle that I hadn't accounted for. There's Percy and Ron and Hermione and the politics of the Ministry; all of these things affect the mission."
"Do you believe you could accomplish the mission without these complexities?"
"It would be harder," Harry said. "But I could do it."
"You could," Dumbledore admitted. "Having seen you change so much over the last few years, I have little doubt that you could go find Voldemort on your own. Given time, you would undoubtedly find him and without...the distractions that were present the last time, you would defeat him."
Harry knew exactly what Dumbledore was going to say next and beat him to it.
"But what would it cost?" Harry said, uttering the line that Dumbledore had told him a thousand times over the last few years.
"Exactly. You would defeat Voldemort but at the expense of everything that makes you who you are. You may believe that your only purpose in life is to defeat Voldemort, but I do not believe that. I believe that you will defeat him, but your greater legacy will be the change that you help foster in our world."
"I heard that from you before," Harry said as he sipped his whiskey. "You can say this a thousand times and I'm going to tell you a thousand times that-"
"I'm nothing special," Dumbledore said, using the line that Harry had spouted at least a thousand times in response. "And yet, at every turn, you prove yourself wrong. Do you enjoy being incorrect so often?"
"You're an ornery old man, aren't you?"
"I was an ornery young man, Harry. I just got better at it with age," Dumbledore said warmly. "Don't underestimate the value of the chaos around you. When it's all over and Voldemort is gone, you'll be one of the ones who set the path forward."
"But only if I participate in the chaos on the way there."
"Indubitably."
Harry thought about that. He knew that it wouldn't be easier to go after Voldemort alone, but it definitely would be simpler. But it would take years and if Dumbledore was right, it would remove Harry's ability to help the world heal afterwards. Most of the time, he doubted that he would ever be that person, but every so often, he let himself consider a world in which Dumbledore was right. In those moments, Harry knew that Dumbledore was right to encourage Harry to embrace the chaos of the Ministry, the chaos of others.
Because, on the outside chance that Dumbledore was right about Harry, then Harry knew that he owed it to everyone to do whatever he could not just to defeat Voldemort but to survive as well.