Chapter Seventeen
When Harry awoke the following morning, he opened his eyes to an unfamiliar sight. Looking around, Harry saw that he wasn't in his own bedroom at Potter Manor or the guest room at Hermione's apartment.
He was in Hermione's bedroom. That was when the events of the previous evening came flooding back into the forefront of his mind. He was dating Hermione Granger, Harry realized as a smile slowly crept across his face. After years of metaphorically dancing around each other, they were actually dating.
Harry rolled over to say good morning until he realized that he was alone in bed. Behind him, Harry could hear the sounds of the shower running. Clearly, Hermione had not bothered to wake him as she started her morning routine.
Harry got out of bed and made his way to the kitchen where a mug of steaming coffee was already waiting for him. He smiled as he brought the warm liquid to his lips. Hermione didn't like coffee. If given the choice, she'd pick tea ten out of ten times, which meant that she'd made this specifically for him. It was a small gesture, but it was one of those things that made him love her even more.
There was that word again: love. Harry had told Hermione that he loved her many times over the years, but he still enjoyed the way the word felt in his mind, the way it rolled off his tongue in a completely different way than it did for Ron or Molly or Ginny or any of the other people in his life who he loved.
By the time that Hermione had gotten out of the shower, Harry had already made breakfast for her to eat while he showered. Once he was finished with his own shower and dressed for the day, he joined Hermione in the living room. Since Harry had moved in, they'd decided to go to work a few minutes apart from each other to avoid the kind of rumors that their combined presence always seemed to bring about.
Now, without having to say anything, they knew that was no longer necessary. Standing in the middle of the living room, Hermione extended a hand to Harry, who took it. A moment later, Hermione turned and they both went from Hermione's apartment to their combined office at The Ministry. As members of the Executive Offices at the Ministry, they were able to skip The Atrium entirely.
They had thought this meant that they would be able to avoid most of the people who were bound to ask them questions about their joint appearances. While that was largely true, Harry couldn't say that he was entirely surprised to see Ron, Ginny, Fred, and George waiting for them when they arrived.
Immediately, the quartet of Weasleys looked at Harry and Hermione and then down at their hands, which were still clasped tight.
Harry shook his head and laughed.
"Who the hell let you in here?" Harry asked.
"The Minister of Magic," George replied. "She thought it was funny that we were all waiting for you."
"Originally, we were in The Atrium," Fred admitted, "but when she heard why we were here, she invited us to wait here."
"That way, there was no chance that we could miss you," Ginny said knowingly.
"We would never try to ignore you," Hermione replied.
"Do you normally Apparate directly into your offices?" Ginny asked.
"Yes," Harry and Hermione said simultaneously.
"If we don't, there's a flock of reporters waiting for us," Harry added.
"You'd skip that particular experience if you could."
"That's fine. Skip the reporters all you want," Ron replied. "But you aren't going to skip us."
"No, I don't imagine we will," Hermione said, laughing. "What do you want to know?"
Before Ron could reply, Fred and George immediately stepped forward.
"Well, a little bird told us-"
"It was Ron, in case you were wondering."
"Yes, Fred, I think they knew it was Ron."
"Just making sure."
"Anyway, a little bird told us that two of our favorite people-"
"That'd be the two of you."
Finally, Hermione had had enough.
"Sweet Merlin, yes! Harry and I went on a date! Yes, we're planning on going on another one! No, we're not getting married anytime soon! No, neither of us have any plans beyond a second date."
"We're also living together."
"Really?" Ron asked.
"He's been living at my apartment since the Diagon Alley incident anyway," Hermione replied.
Suddenly, Ginny stepped forward.
"Have the two of you-"
"Finish that question and I'll make sure that the next Quidditch job you find is in Micronesia," Hermione snapped, although Harry could see the faint outline of a smile on her face.
"Is that even a real place?"
"Do you want to find out?"
"No, not particularly," Ginny replied. "We're happy for you guys."
"Personally, I think that Hermione could do better," George argued, which earned him a punch in the arm from his sister. "What? Have you seen this skinny git?"
"He's not that skinny anymore," Hermione pointed out. "You should see him with his shirt off."
Immediately, everyone in the room turned to Hermione.
"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed.
"What? It's true! You have a very well defined body. It's clear that all those years of training helped."
"Well, that's all I needed to hear," Fred said. "I think we'll be going now. No need to hear any more about Hermione's thoughts on dear little Harry with his shirt off."
"I mean, I'm not against it," Ginny replied.
"Aren't you married?" George asked.
"A girl can dream," Ginny said with a wink to Harry.
"Get out!" Harry finally said, smiling as he gestured wildly towards the door. "We have work to do. Very important work to do!"
"How many meetings do you have today?" Hermione asked.
"That's not the point," Harry whispered as Ginny, Fred, and George exited their office, leaving Harry and Hermione alone with Ron. He, unlike the others, stayed put.
"I'm happy for you two," he said softly and Harry could see that he really did mean it. It wasn't often that Ron expressed his more sensitive side, but the moisture forming on the edges of his eyes told Harry that he was just as happy as they were.
"Thanks, Ron," Hermione said, wrapping her arms around their ginger friend. "Listen, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have a meeting with Amelia in…"
She looked at the clock on the far wall and her eyes widened.
"Well, it started three minutes ago, so I should probably get going."
Hermione quickly raced to her own private office, grabbed whatever she needed for the meeting, and raced towards the door, stopping only for a moment to kiss Harry.
"Well, that was weird," Ron said when Hermione was gone.
"Yeah, that will take some getting used to."
"Didn't look like she needed any time getting used to it," Ron pointed out.
"Well, according to her, she's been in love with me for years," Harry said pointedly. Ron immediately looked down at the ground, tacitly admitting that was the secret that he'd been keeping from him.
"You understand why I didn't tell you, right?"
"I do," Harry said. "I'm glad you didn't tell me. This idea only creeped into my mind recently. If you had told me, it could have ruined any chance we had."
"Glad to be of assistance," Ron replied with a slight curtsy. "How did the night go?"
"Really well," Harry said, relieved. "Dinner was great. Then, we just...talked. I think that's what we'd been missing. She loved me, I loved her, even if I didn't know it, but we were just too afraid to talk about it."
"I'm glad the two of you finally got some sense," Ron replied. "Listen, I told Susan about your date and she said that if things worked out between the two of you that we have to go on a double date some time soon."
"Sure! That'll be fun," Harry said before thinking about it for a moment. "That'll be fun, right?"
"I mean, it'll just be like normal. You and Hermione will talk in your own language that we mere mortals don't understand and Susan and I will sit on the opposite side of the table and look confused. Honestly, nothing will have changed."
"I hope so. But tell Susan that we'd love to do that. We'll just have to find a time that works for all four of us."
Unfortunately, that time wouldn't come for two weeks and during that time, things would go from bad to worse in the wizarding world. Just as Harry seemed to be getting to the verge of figuring out exactly what Voldemort was doing, the Death Eaters began ramping up the pressure on the magical world. Almost every day of the week, there was another attack. They were usually small and the casualties were low, but they knew that if they didn't respond, Voldemort would just ramp up the pressure.
More than once, Harry had considered resigning his position. While it was only a few hours a week at the moment, those were hours that he wasn't focusing on how to stop Voldemort. However, he knew that not only would those hours make much of a difference, but they would prove to Voldemort that his strategy was working. If Harry resigned, it would only make it more likely that Voldemort would escalate the attacks on their world rather than dial them back.
As if that wasn't enough to deal with, the mystery murderer had attacked twice more. The second attack had resulted in the death of Peter Pettigrew. Apparently, after Voldemort had left Britain, Pettigrew had tried to hide from the Death Eaters, fearing that Voldemort's presence and his role in his master's return was the only thing that protected him from the other Death Eaters, who viewed him as weak and more likely to turn on them than help them.
When Voldemort had disappeared, so had Pettigrew. He had elected to build a small cabin deep in an Irish forest. Unfortunately, it had taken only a year for him to be discovered by Antonin Dolohov. Rather than kill him, Dolohov forced him to spy for him, using his Animagus form to gather information on members of the Ministry that Dolohov could then use to blackmail people. Upon Voldemort's return, Dolohov lost track of Pettigrew, who had fled to London. He thought that hiding in the belly of the dragon would be better for him.
Harry had to admit that it was a good plan. They never would have looked for Pettigrew there, although Pettigrew was rather low on the Ministry's list of priorities at any given moment.
However, there was one person looking for Antonin Dolohov who was willing to go through anyone to find him. Pettigrew had been found in an apartment building only a few blocks from the Ministry. Just like the first attack, the wall that separated Pettigrew's apartment from the hall had been removed and Pettigrew himself had been bludgeoned to death.
The third attack occurred at a small Muggle office on the edge of London. There, a group of Death Eater sympathizers had been attacking Muggles before Obliviating them. These Muggles showed up at the hospital with grievous injuries and no idea how they obtained them. It had been a strange pattern that the Aurors had noted, but since it was more directly related to Muggles, they didn't allocate the resources to stop it.
Parvati, however, had the time and apparently had the resources. Again, the front of the building was blown off and the men were bludgeoned to death while the women were speared. While the Ministry officially had no suspects in the case, Tonks had ordered a warrant for Parvati's arrest after the third attack, although that was a fact that was known to the Aurors and a few members of the upper echelon of the Ministry.
Thankfully, things at home were progressing nicely. Harry had officially moved out of Potter Manor, although he was still using the mansion as an alternate work site. He had several ideas on what to do with Potter Manor long term, but he highly doubted that he'd return to the Manor full time even if things didn't end up working out between him and Hermione.
Any concerns that Harry and Hermione might have had about their ability to live together were gone after the first week or so. Waking up next to Hermione was his new favorite thing and the two of them had easily settled into a new routine living alongside each other. Their apartment, which was still something that sounded weird to Harry, wasn't large, but there was just enough space for the two of them. They'd already removed the bed in the guest room (it was currently the size of a dollhouse bed in their top dresser drawer) and set up a space for Harry to have as his own.
For the most part, each day, whether it was a work day or not, started the same way. Hermione woke up first and showered while Harry made breakfast. They ate breakfast together before Harry showered. Then, they went to work. Despite their conjoined offices, they rarely spent any time together at work due to the vastly different nature of their work. Hermione was far more hands on than Harry was, actively working with Penelope and Cho to help shape the legislation that they wanted to pass. Though they were only two weeks in, there were already several bills being considered that would greatly improve the quality of life for every non-Pureblood in their world.
Meanwhile, Harry's job was to connect with the Department Heads. In theory, this meant working with them to enact the new legislation that got passed, troubleshooting any concerns that they might have, and be the point of contact for any projects that needed the Minister's approval. All of this was in addition to his primary job of finding and taking down Voldemort.
However, that was in theory. In practice, Harry's job was to be a buffer between the Department Heads and Penelope. If someone had a concern, they spoke to Harry. If they had legislation they wanted the Minister to support, they spoke to Harry. If they felt that their Department was underfunded, underutilized, mistreated, or disrespected in any way, they spoke to Harry.
From there, it was Harry's job to filter the complaints. Ninety percent of them were handled directly by Harry or Harry's staff, which currently just consisted of his Deputy. When Harry had put out a call for someone to man his office on the days that he would only be there for a few hours, he was shocked to see Padma Patil's name among the applicants. While he was surprised, he also knew that she would immediately become a frontrunner for the position, purely based on her prior experience with him.
To no one's surprise, she had also been the best candidate. Now, on the days where Harry left early, Padma was charged with acting in his stead. She knew the matters that needed to be brought to Harry's attention and which ones that she could deal with herself. She wasn't an assistant, she was his second-in-command and people were already aware that when you spoke to Padma, you were speaking with Harry.
For the other ten percent of the cases that Harry or Padma couldn't deal with immediately, Harry could do one of two things: he could send them to Hermione or he could send them to Penelope. Another ninety percent of the issues went to Hermione, which meant that for every one hundred meetings that Harry took with disgruntled Ministry officials, only one usually ended up directly in front of Penelope.
And even then, Harry usually sent those to her so that she could tell the person to stop bothering Harry, which Penelope was more than happy to do.
Finally, after two weeks of cancellations and rescheduling, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Susan all ended up at a Muggle restaurant in Chelsea. Harry had argued that any magical restaurant that was nice enough to count as a date would immediately be flooded with reporters if they saw the three of them together. While Ron was initially uncomfortable with the idea of a Muggle dining establishment, Susan was able to convince him that it was a good idea.
As expected, Harry and Hermione arrived at the restaurant first and were escorted to a private room in the back. Apparently, Hermione had paid for it so that they could speak more freely without worrying about being overheard. As usual, Hermione's foresight came through when Ron and Susan walked in and Ron immediately asked Harry about Roger Davies's concern about imported batches of Veritserum being sold in Diagon Alley.
Thankfully, Hermione had cast the Muffliato Charm on the room, meaning that unless the staff was standing directly next to them, they had no idea what they were saying.
Once they had all ordered, Harry turned to Susan. He hadn't talked to his former Hufflepuff classmate in years and since she'd been dating one of his best friends for a few weeks, he wanted to know a bit more about her.
"So, Susan, Ron has been very rude and told us almost nothing about you," Harry said, ignoring the dirty look that Ron was giving him. "What have you been up to since Hogwarts?"
"Well, I finished up my seventh year and I originally considered doing an apprenticeship under Professor Flitwick, but when the time came, I just felt like I was done with Hogwarts for a while. So, I, like everyone else, came to work at The Ministry."
"I hated it," Susan said, blushing, knowing that all three of them now worked at the Ministry. "It just was so cold and sterile and I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew that wasn't it. I quit two weeks later and then just decided to take some time to travel."
"Really?" Hermione asked. "Where did you go?"
"I have family in Moscow, so I visited with them for a few months. After that, it was Japan, Australia, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Israel, and Egypt. When I left, I intended to travel for a few months. I ended up being gone for about two years. During that time, I fell in love with writing. I wrote everything that I saw, everything that I experienced. When I came back, I showed it to my mother and she encouraged me to turn it into a book."
"While the book wasn't a huge success, the reviews for it were really good. Eventually, The Prophet reached out to me and offered me a job. I am what the Muggles would call an investigative journalist. I get to pick my own subject matter and I only write an article when it's ready, which is usually about four or five times a year."
"That's how we met," Ron said. "Well, met again...as adults. She was doing an article on the SAF."
Susan nodded. "I interviewed Ron for probably over six hours. That was just over a year ago. At the time, I was still dating Neville but when things didn't work out between us, I reached out to Ron. We talked for a bit and then went on our first date about six months ago."
"Six months?" Harry said. "You two have been dating for six months?"
When Harry had learned that Ron was going on a date with Susan a few weeks earlier, he had assumed that it was a first date. Apparently, he'd been wrong.
"Closer to seven," Ron said.
Harry turned and looked at Hermione who clearly hadn't known that Ron's relationship with Susan had lasted that long either.
Susan, seeing Harry and Hermione's reaction, turned to Ron.
"Did you not tell them?"
"I didn't," Ron admitted. "It wasn't like I was actively keeping it a secret. While Harry was gone, Hermione and I didn't really...hang out much. Even when Harry came back, we've all been so focused on work that we don't really spend a whole lot of time chatting about our lives."
"He's not wrong," Harry replied. "To be honest, we haven't spent much time together that wasn't related to tracking down Voldemort."
"Yeah, the rest of his time was spent trying to get in Hermione's pants," Ron quipped.
"Hey!" Harry protested.
"Am I wrong?" Ron replied. "Tell me I'm wrong."
"He's not wrong," Hermione said quickly. When she noticed the look of betrayal on Harry's face, she smiled at him. "He's not wrong! Other than a couple nights with the SAF, we've pretty much spent all of our time together."
"I suppose," Harry conceded.
"Well, here's hoping that you guys can catch Voldemort and go back to being friends with normal social lives," Susan said, raising a glass to toast them.
"When have we had normal social lives?" Ron asked Harry and Hermione.
"Here's hoping that you guys can catch Voldemort so that you can finally have normal social lives!"
Harry could immediately see why Ron was attracted to Susan. She was funny, funnier than any of the rest of them were, and she didn't seem to be particularly daunted by the fact that she was dating Ron Weasley. Unlike Hermione, who had cycled through a few short but relatively unsuccessful relationships between dating Ron and dating Harry, Ron's dating history was a bit more consistent.
After his eighteen month relationship with Hermione ended, he was single for about four months before he dated Fay Dunbar. That relationship lasted just over five months before Ron finally called it quits. In his words, "the sex was pretty good, but she basically had wet bread for a personality."
After that, he'd dated Angelina Johnson for about two months before they realized that things just were never going to work out between them. He'd gone roughly a year between their break-up and the apparent start of his relationship with Susan.
His relationship with Hermione hadn't worked largely because he and Hermione both enjoyed being right a bit too often. While they were able to be friends, it led to a power struggle within their relationship that neither of them knew how to fix. Things with Fay had ended due to her aforementioned lack of a personality and his rather short-lived relationship with Angelina hadn't even really had time to get off the ground.
For the first time, Harry saw Susan as someone who brought balance to Ron. On one hand, she was smart, funny, and completely capable of riffing with the best of them (a thing that would make her presence at family gatherings with the Weasleys a true delight). On the other hand, she didn't seem particularly interested in the prestige of dating Ron Weasley. She had her own rather successful career that was in no way related to Ron's, which meant that Ron's natural competitive instincts wouldn't kick in.
In all, Harry really hoped that things worked out for the two of them.
As dinner turned into desert, Harry found himself truly enjoying their evening together. Susan spent almost an hour telling the story of how she accidentally stumbled upon Mahoutokoro School of Magic, Japan's answer to Hogwarts, during a hunt for the legendary Sea Serpent of the Pacific. The more she spoke, the more he found himself comparing her travels to his own. While she had traveled to learn and experience the world, Harry had traveled to lose himself to it, following a global trail of breadcrumbs from one city to another without any real concern of where he was going.
In truth, Harry had covered more of the planet in four years than most people would travel in their entire lifetimes and yet, he hadn't really seen any of it.
Unfortunately, like most good things in Harry's life, dinner with Ron and Susan came to a dramatic and sudden end. They had just finished ordering desert when a Patronus, a fox, came flying through the wall and stopped in front of him.
"You're needed in New Hogsmeade."
The voice belonged to Penelope Clearwater. Whether it was specifically intended for Harry or Hermione was unclear, but Harry imagined that they were both needed. Reluctantly, Harry nodded to Ron and Susan and then stood.
"Hey, sorry about this," Harry said as he helped Hermione put on her coat. "We'll have to finish this some other time."
"Do you think I'll be getting a summons?" Ron asked.
"If it's who we think it is, I'm sure of it," Hermione said with a knowing look in Harry's direction.
Harry and Hermione exited the restaurant and then sneaked down a side street so that they could Apparate to New Hogsmead unseen. When they landed, it was instantly clear where they needed to head. All they had to do was follow the giant smoke pillar in the sky. Harry drew his wand and took off towards the fire, Hermione following just behind him.
As they raced towards the fire, dozens of people sprinted away from it, some of them covered in ash and soot, suggesting that they had been close to the first. Harry had thought that this was another attack by Parvati, but after seeing the damage that appeared to have been done, he now thought that this was another Death Eater attack.
Eventually, they arrived at a two-story home on the edge of town. The house itself was completely engulfed in flames and the houses in each direction were also on fire. Standing in front of the house, doing her best to direct the Aurors, was Tonks, flanked by Penelope and Amelia Bones.
Immediately, Harry stepped forward and fired a massive wave of water at the house. In just a few seconds, the flames were out, leaving the rest of the Aurors to clean up the resulting fires to the other houses.
"How the hell did you do that?" Tonks asked.
"Training," Harry stated simply. "How long ago was he here?"
"He?" Penelope asked.
"Voldemort. I assume he was the one responsible for this."
"No, he wasn't," Tonks said. Harry noticed that there was a file in her hand. In every previous attack that Parvati had perpetrated, she'd left a file with a summary of the person's wrongdoings in a place where it could easily be found by the Aurors. Its presence here told Harry one thing: this wasn't Voldemort at all.
"Who was the target?"
"Their names were Elena and Marcus Fry," Tonks said, handing Harry the file. Harry had no interest in reading it at the moment, so he handed it to Hermione, who began to skim through its contents.
"According to that information, Marcus and Elena had been providing intelligence to the Death Eaters for years now. They more or less watched the town for them, keeping track of which Aurors were here, who was meeting whom. If everything in there is right, then they were part of the reason that the Death Eaters were so easily able to take Hogsmeade during The Battle of Hogwarts."
Harry looked at the house. Unlike the others, where the front of the house had been blown off, this time, the entire house had been set ablaze.
"Were Marcus and Elena the only ones killed?"
"No," Amelia replied. "One of the neighbors was caught in the initial blast. They were sent to St. Mungo's, although they'll likely be fine. Marcus and Elena also had two children, Dexter, age six, and Kylie...age one."
"You're saying…"
"As far as we know, they were in the house."
Instantly, Harry turned away and slipped down a side street. Once he was out of sight, Harry retched and everything that he'd eaten in the last twenty-four hours spilled onto the pavement. He felt Hermione's hand on his back, comforting him the best that she could.
When was finally done, he stood, his blood filled with rage.
"Harry," Hermione said, sensing Harry's anger, "take a breath and slow down."
"I'm fine," Harry growled as he marched back to where Tonks, Amelia, and Penelope stood. "Minister, I'd ask that we go public with our warrant for Parvati Patil. She needs to be stopped at all costs."
"You're that certain that she did this?" Penelope asked.
"This file," Harry said, motioning to the documents in Hermione's hands, "I assume that it tells us that they were reporting to Antonin Dolohov."
"It does," Tonks admitted. "Marcus went to school with Antonin. They were good friends and while Marcus never became an official Death Eater, he was clearly very supportive of their cause."
"Then, yes, I am certain that this was Parvati," Harry replied. "I thought that she was trying to work her way up the ladder, but this seems to suggest that she's just killing anyone who worked with Dolohov."
"Plus, she's escalating," Hermione added. "The other attacks all seemed to mimic the attack on her parents' home. This one suggests that she's less concerned with recreating those circumstances and more concerned with vengeance."
"I concur," Penelope replied. She then turned to Tonks. "Make a statement to the press. Then, put her sister into protective custody. The last thing we need is some idiot thinking that Padma is Parvati and taking matters into their own hands."
"Make it clear that she is just as dangerous as the Death Eaters," Amelia added.
"Yes, ma'am, Minister," Tonks said to the both of them before Disapparating. At this point, the fires were almost entirely out and repairs were already beginning on the other homes. While the Fry's home was far too damaged to fix in a single night, the other homes would be good as new before everyone left tonight.
Not that that would make things better for those that had been hurt in tonight's attack.
When the fires were finally out, Harry entered the house. The charred remains of Elena and Marcus Fry were found in the living room. It was clear that they had been tied up and left to die. The most horrifying part was that the bodies of their children weren't found together. While Kylie was still in her nursery upstairs, Dexter's body was found in the kitchen next to the living room.
That suggested that he'd either been killed before the house had burned or that he'd been forced to watch as his parents were murdered. Based on the preliminary reports by one of the Aurors, it did appear that Elena and Marcus had been murdered in much the same way that Parvati's other victims had been killed. In the end, it appeared that Parvati's attempt to blow up the front of the house had been overzealous. Rather than simply blowing up the front, she'd caught the entire house on fire.
The Parvati that Harry had known never would have left children to die. But, Harry couldn't say that he knew Parvati anymore. The first attack had been surprising, but it still felt like Parvati. Above everything else, she believed in justice. That's why she left the information behind. It was her way of letting people know that her victims weren't innocent. In her mind, that was justification enough to slaughter them in their homes or their workplace.
But this attack felt different. Maybe because there were children present, but this attack felt more personal than the others. Harry wondered if Parvati was forced to flee from the house after seeing Dexter. Before he left, an Auror reported to him that Dexter had not been harmed in any way prior to the house catching fire and that the boy likely died of smoke inhalation before he had a chance to catch fire. The same was true of his sister.
When the scene was finally clear at some time after two in the morning, Hermione wanted nothing more than to return home. But before they did that, Harry had one more place that he wanted to go. They landed in the living room of Parvati's apartment. He'd been here once or twice over the years. While Parvati had ostensibly lived at Potter Manor, she'd always kept a second residence for when she and Harry had been fighting or even broken up.
Typically, the apartment was clean, meticulously so, with everything incredibly well organized. That might have been the truth if there had been anything left in the apartment. Instead, when they arrived, they did so to an empty apartment. In fact, it had clearly been empty for a while judging by the accumulation of dust on the kitchen shelves.
"Harry, she knew that she was going to do this," Hermione whispered, almost if she was worried that someone was going to catch them. "It's been weeks since she's lived here."
"I know. I wouldn't be surprised if she had already moved out when she decided to resign from the Aurors."
This changed things. Before, Harry could at least indulge in the fantasy that Parvati had been telling the truth when she'd informed him of her resignation. He wanted to believe that she had left to get away from Voldemort, Dolohov, and all things that reminded her of her parents' death. He wanted to believe that she had found or discovered something that had forced her to take action. Even if that action was extreme, the thought that she had done it out of necessity was calming for Harry.
Now, it was clear that she had not just made that choice, but she had done so well before she'd resigned. Hermione was right. This was a choice that she'd made. She had decided to walk away from the Aurors and start her own crusade.
On one hand, it broke his heart to see someone that he cared about fall so quickly and so hard. On the other hand, Harry had zero tolerance for this. Sure, Harry had killed people in the past. He'd even executed Ezekiel Greengrass in his own home. He'd known that was wrong, but at least he could justify it by pointing out that Greengrass was a primary player in the Death Eaters and that only Greengrass got hurt. Parvati was killing informants and their children were dying as collateral damage.
"Harry, let's go home," Hermione whispered softly in his ear. "You can deal with this tomorrow. Let's get some sleep."
Sleep wasn't easy to come by that night, but it did come. The following morning, Harry spent almost his entire day at the Ministry, dealing with the aftermath of Parvati's attack. While Padma had not been particularly excited to learn that she was going to be put into protective custody, she understood why it was necessary, although Harry could see that it broke her heart. He shouldn't have been surprised. He might have loved Parvati, but Padma was her twin. They shared a bond that no one else could have possibly understood.
Finally, after meetings and interviews and a planning session to determine how the Ministry wanted to address Parvati, Harry was free to leave. He thought about going home, but he instead decided to go to Potter Manor. The sooner they were able to stop Voldemort, the better and Harry knew that he needed every hour of work to go into catching him. If not, Dexter and Kylie Fry would not be the last children killed in this war.
He'd been working for about an hour when a red envelope suddenly fluttered through his window. It was a Howler, something that Harry had never personally received. What he got, however, was not exactly what he was expecting. The envelope landed on his desk and then rather quietly spoke.
"Meet me at The Leaky Cauldron in one hour. Sit in the corner booth. Come alone."
Then, the envelope that had spoken with the voice of Parvati Patil destroyed itself. Harry paused for a moment. He knew that he should report this. He knew that he should take this opportunity to come down on her hard and that they could have a good conversation once she was in custody. But he also knew that Parvati had been one of the Ministry's top Aurors for a reason. She would know when something was wrong.
Harry quickly grabbed a piece of parchment and scribbled a quick note. Moments later, Hedwig carried the note back out the window.
An hour later, Harry arrived at The Leaky Cauldron. There were only a few people there and all of them stared at Harry as he walked in the door. Thankfully, none of them approached him as he walked through the tavern and sat in the corner booth. A moment later, Tom appeared.
"Mr. Potter, what can I get you?"
"Firewhiskey. Leave the bottle," Harry said, throwing down a couple of Galleons. Tom gave Harry a suspicious look, clearly remembering the last time that Harry had been in here.
"Tom, I promise I'm not looking to get sloppy. I'll have a friend joining me shortly."
"Of course, of course, Mr. Potter," Tom said, although Harry could tell that the aged barman probably didn't believe him. It took only a few seconds for Tom to come back with the firewhiskey and two glasses. Harry thanked Tom and poured himself a stout glass of firewhiskey.
He was just about to tip it back when an old woman took a seat next to him. Harry wasn't fooled. This disguise was good, clearly the result of Polyjuice Potion, but she moved like a younger woman and her eyes darted around the bar, keeping an eye on everyone.
"Hello, Parvati."
"Well, I see that you're as observant as ever," Parvati replied. Her disguise had a deep, gruff voice that sounded more like nails being scraped along concrete than a person. It was a shockingly different sound, especially when you considered that it still somehow sounded like Parvati.
"And I see that you're as lethal as ever," Harry countered.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't fuck with me," Harry growled. "The attack in Knockturn Alley, the warehouse, that house in New Hogsmeade last night? All you."
Parvati glared at Harry for a moment before she leaned forward and poured herself a glass of firewhiskey, which she downed in a single shot.
"I found him."
"What?"
"Dolohov," Parvati replied, a manic glee in her eyes. "I found him. Elena Fry knew where he'd been hiding. I need your help to take him down."
Harry scoffed. "You need to turn yourself in, Parvati. This is getting out of hand."
"No! This is getting me exactly what I want. Pretty soon, Dolohov will be dead and I will be-"
"Dead as well," Harry replied. "I'm sure that you're paying attention to everything so you know that the Aurors put out a warrant for your arrest. You keep it up and it will be a kill on sight order."
"I'm not worried about that," Parvati said confidently. "Besides, you can't tell me that this isn't exactly what you want. You want the Death Eaters dead just as badly as I do."
"No, I want Voldemort dead."
"Really? What about Ezekiel Greengrass?" Parvati asked scathingly.
He knew that this is where she was going to head, so he was ready for it.
"That was a mistake. I was angry. Angry about how things were going with you, angry at Snape for showing up at Chasers. Hell, I was angry at everything when I first came back."
"You should be. The Death Eaters have taken more from you than anyone."
"Yes, I am aware of just how much they've taken. My parents, a normal childhood, a loving family, my godfather, McGonagall, Dumbledore: all of them have been taken from me by them. When I came back after giving up four years of my life to train, all I wanted to do was make them hurt."
"Then why won't you help me?" Parvati pleaded.
"Because I saw the look that Hermione and Ron gave me after I killed Ezekiel Greengrass. I saw that I had become something foreign to them, something that I had actively spent years of my life fighting. I knew then that killing people in cold blood wasn't going to help me. I know that killing Voldemort won't help me. I don't know how I'll feel if it happens, but I know that it won't suddenly cure the wounds that they've caused."
"I'm not an idiot. I know that there are going to be more deaths on both sides before this war is over. I know that Ezekiel Greengrass will likely not be the last person that I kill. But when I kill people, I make sure that they are the only ones who die. I don't blow up their houses and I don't kill their children."
Harry could instantly tell, even on the foreign face that Parvati was wearing, that she had intended to kill the children. That much, at the very least, was a relief.
"I didn't mean to," Parvatia admitted. "When Elena told me that she knew where Dolohov was, I just...lost it. I killed both of them and then destroyed the front of the house and immediately Disapparated. It wasn't until much later that I remembered that they had mentioned that they had children in the house."
"By that point, it was too late, right?" Harry asked coldly. "By that point, Dexter Fry had already walked down the stairs to find the corpses of his parents and the entire living room on fire. He died in the kitchen, likely trying to get out the locked back door, suffocating on the smoke that filled his lungs. Upstairs, his sister, his one-year-old sister, had even less of a chance. She was still in her crib when the smoke got to her. I'd say that it's a good thing that they both died before the fire got to them, but I imagine that suffocating to death is a rather painful experience in its own right."
"Harry, I didn't mean-"
"I don't care," Harry replied. "I don't. At first, I thought that this was about your parents. The method of death, the destruction of the house: it all fit. But after last night, I realized that even if that was what it was all about, I don't care. No one gets to be judge, jury, and executioner. Not you, not me."
Parvati glared at Harry. Clearly, this conversation was not going as she anticipated.
"So what now? Are you going to turn me in?"
"I already have," Harry said as he stood. "Parvati, I need you to put your wand on the table."
"What have you done?" Parvati asked as she noticed that every person in the bar was staring at them.
"When you sent me the letter and told me to come alone, I knew that if I set up a watch or a perimeter, you'd spot it and you'd disappear. But what if that watch took place from inside the bar?"
Suddenly, everyone in the bar stood and drew their wands.
"You're not the only one who can use Polyjuice Potion, Parvati," Harry said firmly, raising his wand towards Parvati. "I know that you think that you're doing the right thing, but you aren't. People aren't inspired by your actions. They're just as frightened of you as they are of the Death Eaters."
"Parvati Patil, I am placing you under arrest for the murder of Marcus, Elena, Dexter, and Kylie Fry. Please place your wand on the table and come with us."
Parvati looked at Harry, fury evident in her eyes. She felt betrayed, but Harry honestly didn't care. This was beyond any relation that they might have had. People were getting hurt and if Harry didn't stop her, he wasn't sure that anyone would.
"Parvati, please," Harry pleaded when he saw that Parvati wasn't moving.
Suddenly, Parvati smiled and Harry knew that something was wrong.
"Harry, you think that I can't recognize my old team?" Parvati asked. "That's Ron. That's Williamson and Goran. Over there is Kliner with Greengrass. I worked next to these people every day for four years! You really think that I didn't recognize them for who they were the moment that I walked in here?"
"Then why did you come here?" Harry asked.
"Because I wanted to see just how committed you are to ending the Death Eaters," Parvati growled. "I must say that I'm rather disappointed with the answer."
"Parvati, just stop. Surrender and we won't harm you."
"No, you won't. Tell Hermione I said hello."
Then, without warning, the room suddenly went black. It was as if a black mist had suddenly exploded, blocking anyone from seeing anything. It took nearly twenty seconds for the mist to clear. When it was gone, Harry wasn't surprised to see that Parvati was nowhere to be found.
"What was that?" Harry roared, flipping a table next to him.
"Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder," Ron replied. "Fred and George sell it."
"Dammit!" Harry shouted. "Maybe we need to have a talk with your brothers about who they're selling that to?"
"Hey, don't take this out on them. This is on Parvati, no one else," Ron stated. "We'll just have to be smarter next time."
"Don't you worry about that. We will."