Chapter 14
Harry winced as he stepped through the DMLE’s training room floo, feeling several wards break. He stumbled.
“Merlin’s baggy pants, Potter,” Robards growled. “If you wanted to avoid the crowds, just ask to be keyed in next time. Just because you can break protective wards doesn’t mean you should.”
Harry felt appropriately admonished. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I’ll help you fix it.”
“You’d better, young man,” Robards grumbled.
There were five other aurors in the room, but Harry only recognised two of them. Proudfoot and Savage had been stationed at Hogsmeade with Tonks in his sixth year and had come to Bill and Fleur’s wedding. Their names had been listed along with those who fought at the Battle, but Harry didn’t remember seeing them. They’d also been at Tonks’ funeral.
“Good to see you again, Potter,” Pengfei Proudfood said as he shook his hand.
“Proudfoot, Savage,” Harry greeted. “How are you?”
Aaliyah Savage smiled grimly. “Better now that we have a full team. How are you? How’s Teddy?”
“You know,” Harry returned the expression. His smile brightened as he thought of his godson. “Teddy’s brilliant, though. He’s getting really good and changing his hair colour now. He was so excited when I dropped him off at the Burrow this morning. Had bright red hair.”
Savage grinned genuinely now. “I’d be excited, too, if I could get some of Molly’s cooking. Let me introduce you to the team,” she said, gesturing to the others.
“Mordecai Berrycloth,” a tall, bald wizard with an extremely long red beared said as he reached out his hand. Despite his facial hair – a long beard always reminded Harry of old wizards like Dumbledore – he looked quite young. In his late twenties, maybe. “But everyone calls me Kai. It’s good to meet you, Potter,” he said in a strong American accent. “I’m glad you’ve joined – it means I’m not the newest recruit anymore.”
“Nice to meet you,” Harry said. “Are you from America?” he asked with interest.
Mordecai nodded and smiled proudly. “I’m from Philly. Auror with MACUSA for five years. I moved to the UK just three weeks ago.”
Harry was aware that Kingsley had advertised some Ministry roles in the US and Europe after the war. The new Minister had attempted to fire half of the ministry for having open connections to and support of Voldemort, but in the end only a few people had left – most supporters of Voldemort having claimed that they had been Imperiused. Personally, Harry reckoned they should’ve made everyone explain their actions in the war under Veritaserum, but according to Hermione and Kingsley, that was very much illegal without sufficient evidence of any illegal activity. And since the harming of muggleborns under Voldemort’s rule wasn’t illegal, there was nothing he could do. The ministry remained as fundamentally flawed as ever.
An older, heavily scarred man nodded at Harry but didn’t reach for his hand. “James Clagg,” he said in a thick Scottish accent.
“Clagg is our second-in-chief,” Savage explained. “Just came out of retirement.”
Harry nodded back at him. “Pleasure to meet you, sir.”
Clagg harrumphed. “Good, you’ve got manners. Best not to waste them on me, though.” Harry was fondly reminded of Moody.
“Elfrida Whitby,” a middle-aged witch said, shaking his hand. “Call me Elfie.”
Harry frowned. “I recognise the name.”
She nodded. “My son used to go to Hogwarts. Hufflepuff. He’s a fourth year at Beauxbaton’s now.”
“Yeah – he’s friends with Dennis Creevey, right?” Harry asked, the memory of Colin’s death flashing before his eyes.
The witch blinked in surprise. “Good memory. Poor kid. Dennis has been living with us in France since the end of last year. He’s starting Beauxbaton’s this year. Colin got him to us when their parents died.”
Harry sucked in a breath. “I didn’t know their parents died. Colin was- “he choked slightly on the memories. “Too young.”
Elfie nodded grimly. “We tried to get him to come with his brother, but he was too damn stubborn.”
“I’m glad Dennis has you,” Harry said. “Do you know if any more were orphaned?”
The witch sighed sadly. “Presumably hundreds, but I don’t know any personally. The Death Eaters didn’t exactly keep a list of everyone they killed.”
Harry frowned. He’d ask Kingsley this afternoon if he had any ideas.
“Alright,” Robards called from the front of the room, Cragg at his side. They gathered around. “Now that you’ve all met Potter, let’s discuss the plan. Our primary targets are the unaccounted-for Death Eaters Avery, Crabbe, Goyle, Jugson, and the Lestrange brothers. Based on witness accounts of recent attacks on a few towns just outside of Little Whinging, Surrey, and some muggle towns near Ottery St. Catchpole, Devon, we believe they are working together.”
Harry shuddered. He couldn’t help but spare a thought for his aunt, uncle and cousin. They were abusive and neglectful arseholes, but Dudley had apologised – kind of – and Petunia had done that weird thing when she said she lost a sister when Harry lost a mother. They certainly had quite a bit of nasty karma coming their way, but they didn’t deserve to be the targets of some rogue Death Eaters. He knew the Weasleys were relatively safe in the Burrow, due to the insane amount of Ministry-approved (and not-so-approved) protection spells and wards, but he couldn’t help but worry for them, too.
Robards nodded at Harry. “It doesn’t take a huge amount of detective work to figure out that they are targeting Potter.” Harry felt his ears turn pink, but nobody turned their attention from Robards to look at him. “We’re going to draw them out.”
Elfie frowned. “You’re going to use Potter as bait.” It wasn’t a question. She turned to look at him accusingly. “And I bet it was your idea.”
The witch clearly already knew Harry well enough to read him like a book. Her expression reminded Harry of Hermione and Molly, so he decided to use the same argument on her. “They’re looking for me anyway.”
Kai whistled lowly. “You have a death-wish, kid.”
Robards grunted something that sounded suspiciously like “Dumbledore.” He cleared his throat. “Greyback is holding back information. He is able to resist Veritaserum and has fairly strong occlumency skills. We might be able to get more out of him, but at this moment it looks doubtful. As we do not know where they are, we have to draw them out. We have two options: sting or battle.”
Proudfoot spoke up. “We could definitely pull off a sting, but it would take longer. We’d have to keep Potter’s employment with the Aurors away from public knowledge. Ideally, he’d move back in to his old house and draw them out by walking around visibly unprotected in muggle streets. I don’t know how long it would take before they attempt to jump him, but it would definitely be quite a few weeks. They’d suspect a trap. We would have to be hiding in bushes for months.”
Savage continued. “If we battle, it’ll have to be near Ottery St. Catchpole, where there aren’t as many muggles. Memory modification will be too hard otherwise. Harry should be announced as a member of the team. We’d go on visible patrols. We’d have to stick to a schedule and look disorganised enough that they’d believe they have a chance.”
“Statistics?” Robards asked, turning to Cragg.
The older wizard narrowed his eyes. “Sting: 49% chance of capturing all of them, with 24% fatalities on our side. Battle: 87% chance of capturing all, 61% fatalities.”
Harry ran a hand through his hair. Neither sounded particularly good. “If some escaped from the sting, what are they likely to do?” he asked.
Elfie answered. “It depends who we get and who we don’t. If we get a Lestrange, the other would be very volatile and wouldn’t wait around to lick his wounds. He’d aim for a public attack with the aim of bringing a lot of people down with him. To a lesser extent it’d be the same with Crabbe and Goyle. It’ll be easy to take them down if they’re angry, but a lot of potentially innocent victims.”
“What’s their motivation?” Robards asked.
“To avenge their lord by bringing down Potter,” Kai answered easily.
Robards waved a hand dismissively. “Yes, but what is their end goal? If they managed to kill Potter, what would they do next?”
“Instil fear in Wizarding Britain again. Gather followers by threats. Try to take over the ministry.” Harry frowned. “They’ll need a leader.”
Robards nodded. “Goyle and Crabbe are lackeys. The Lestrange brothers aren’t much brighter. Avery or Jugson are the obvious choices.”
Harry thought back to the times he’d encountered them. “I don’t remember Jugson well,” he admitted. “But Avery is too weak. He was always begging for mercy at m- at Voldemort’s feet,” he said, remembering his vivid dreams from Voldemort’s perspective. “The others wouldn’t trust him.”
Cragg nodded. “Potter’s right. Avery is a sadist, but he’s too volatile. If he’s been demeaned a lot by Voldemort in front of others, they won’t respect him. Jugson is the sensible choice. He’s quite calculating, but he gets riled up easily. Very impatient.”
“So, an impatient leader,” Kai said. “An unstable second-in-command who vies for the chief position, and four torturous lumberjacks for lackeys. I reckon that if we draw them into battle, they’ll probably underestimate us.”
Robards turned to Harry. “Potter?” he asked. Harry was surprised – he hadn’t thought he’d be involved in the decision-making process. “It’s your life on the line,” the Head Auror said by means of explanation.
“Yours too,” Harry said. At Robards’ shrug, Harry sighed. “Are you sure we can’t get more out of Greyback?”
Robards frowned. “They have until the 2nd to try. Personally, I doubt it, but the Minister remains hopeful. He said he’s got someone new to try and break him.”
Harry gulped. He prayed to god that didn’t mean him, after the letter he got this morning. “Battle, then. Unless Kingsley can get something better from him.”
Robards nodded. “We’ll train and plan for Battle until Friday. Don’t make plans for the weekend. Keep your mouths shut about Potter’s involvement in the team until then. Since I still have you all for the rest of the morning, though, partner up. Cragg with Potter. Elfie, Kai. Savage, Proudfoot. Duel until I call time. No serious injuries, though. Work on mind invasion and defence, too. The Lestrange brothers are both scarily good at Legilimens.”
After the most intense duelling session of his life, Harry was dripping with sweat in the Ministry changing rooms.
“Excellent form, Potter,” Cragg was saying. “I can see why Robards let you on the team without qualifications.”
Elfie clapped him on the back. “Potter’s qualifications include defeating a Dark Lord, Cragg,” she teased. “Where’s that on your resume?” The older man rolled his eyes at her cheek.
“Watch it, Whitby,” he growled fondly. “Otherwise you’ll be partnered with me next time.”
Elfie shrieked with laughter. “I’d crush you, old man,” she called over her shoulder as she made her way to the showers.
“As I was saying,” Cragg continued. “You’ve got good form. Your reflexes are naturally quick. Your wandless magic was very easy to block, though. It doesn’t feel quite right.”
Harry raised a brow, interested. “I’ve been working on it a lot – it’s far easier to control than through my wand.”
Cragg frowned. “What do you do when you cast wandless magic?”
“I dunno,” Harry shrugged, casting a few wandless cleaning spells on his robes. “I just think about the spell I want to cast.”
Cragg nodded. “That’s why I was able to block it. When I used legilimency I could practically hear you shouting the spell in your mind,” he paused and looked at Harry with scrutiny. “You’re very powerful, lad. I shouldn’t think you’d need to do that. Just will it to happen.”
Harry frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The same thing you did with the wards earlier. Just will the magic to do your bidding. Here, try to disarm me, but don’t think of a spell. Just will it to happen,” Cragg said.
Harry closed his eyes. Instead of thinking expelliarmus like he usually would, he tried to picture Cragg’s wand flying into his hand. When he opened his eyes, he felt a tug of magic, and the wizard’s wand was in his hand.
“Good,” Cragg said, nodding approvingly. “Keep practising. In fact, try not to use your wand for the rest of the week. If you can start to will things to happen, your magic will get even stronger.”
Harry nodded and handed back the man’s wand. “Thank you.”
“No problem, lad. I think you’re going to make a fine auror,” Cragg said as he left.
Proudfoot, Savage and Kai were arguing loudly over some quidditch match between two American quidditch teams.
“You follow American quidditch?” Harry asked Proudfoot and Savage.
Proudfoot sighed. “Well, it’s nowhere near as good as British quidditch,” he said, ignoring Kai’s yelp of indignation, “but since there are no professional games in Britain until next week, I’ve had to make do. Are you going to the Arrows vs. Wasps game?”
Harry pulled a face. “Yeah I am. I was really excited, but Kingsley’s turning it into a press thing. I wanted to go with Polyjuice.”
“Ugh that sucks,” Savage said.
Kai shrugged. “The media will probably die down when you stop being interesting,” he said kindly.
Proudfoot and Savage burst into laughter, and even Harry hid a smile. “I don’t think Harry Potter will ever not be interesting.” Proudfoot guffawed. He turned to Harry. “You coming to lunch at the Leaky?”
Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I’d love to, but it’s probably best if I’m not seen in public with you guys until everything’s sorted. Also, I have a meeting with Kingsley.” He shrugged off his red auror robes and pulled on some plain black ones.
Kai frowned. “The British certainly expect a lot from a seventeen-year-old kid, don’t they?”
“Wait ‘til you hear that he’s a single parent,” Savage said drily.
“My godson,” Harry supplied at Kai’s shocked face. “And I’m not a single parent, not really. I’ve got Ron and Hermione.”
Proudfoot chuckled. “Fine, you’re co-parenting an infant with two other seventeen-year-olds. Still a lot to expect from all of you,” he said seriously.
“Yeah, well,” Harry said, feeling a bit awkward. “I’m used to it.”
“I bet you are,” Kai said quietly. He looked at him with such sympathy that Harry had to look away.
Sensing Harry’s discomfort, Savage smiled. “Well, if you ever need a babysitter, I’m always free. Same with Proudfoot.”
“Hey,” the man exclaimed. “I have a very busy social life, I’ll have you know.”
Kai laughed. “No, you don’t – you’re an auror.”
The four of them made their way to the door. “See you later, Potter,” Proudfoot said. “Good luck with the Minister. We owe you a drink.”
Harry grinned as he made his way to the Minister’s office, more than thrilled with his new team mates. Somewhere in the back of his mind, though, a quiet voice was chanting‘61% chance of fatalities’.
“Ah, Harry. Thank you for coming. Well done for passing Robards’ test. He was rather impressed with you. How was your first day?” Kingsley asked as Harry entered his office.
Harry smiled. “Yeah, it wasn’t too bad. I really like the team.”
“Excellent. Robards is thrilled to have a full team again. I’m glad Cragg’s come out of retirement. It’s a bit of an honour, really. He left in 1959 when Ignatius Tuft took over as Minister and refused to come back until the Ministry was under a leader that wasn’t corrupt. It’s a low bar, but I’m glad he believes that I’m above it,” Kingsley said, indicating that Harry should take a seat. The Minister waved his wand in an arch and raised several privacy wards around his office. “You’re not going to like what I have to say next.”
“Oh?” Harry said raising an eyebrow. “You think I was thrilled to be called in about the interrogations?” he asked sardonically. Malfoy’s sarcasm was clearly rubbing off on him.
Kingsley wasn’t fazed by his attitude. “Yes, well. I don’t just want you to sit in on my next interview with Greyback. I want you to interrogate him.”
“Me?” Harry asked. “Why? I’ve no idea how to interrogate someone,” Harry said bluntly.
Kingsley sighed. “I know. Which is why I want you to do it.” He closed his eyes as if he were pained for a moment. “You don’t know what the rules are.”
“I’m sorry?” Harry asked, very much not expecting that to be the Minister’s reasoning.
Kingsley looked into Harry’s eyes with an expression he’d never seen the man wear before. “Harry. Greyback is a bad person. He’s killed hundreds, maybe thousands. Ruined even more lives by turning people. Remus was forever considered a second-class citizen because of what this man did.”
“I’m aware,” Harry said darkly. He could see where this was going. “What has that got to do with me interrogating him?”
Kingsley sighed, closing his eyes again. “I know we just spoke of me not being corrupt, but I- you should know that the ministry cannot identify what spells you cast with the Elder Wand,” he said after a moment.
Harry nodded- it was one of the first things Hermione had told him about the wand.
“He’s impervious to Veritaserum. None of us can break him. We cannot, legally, use a strong enough legilimency on him because it would literally cause his head to explode - his mental wards are too strong. We have two options. And both require you to do cast one or more extremely illegal spells so that this son of a bitch doesn’t end up prowling the streets again,” Kingsley explained. “You will not – and cannot – be charged with anything illegal; you and I will be the only people who know what you are going to do, your wand is the only one on earth that cannot be monitored by the ministry, and you can claim deniability because you do not know the law. I took an Oath. I cannot specify what spells or actions you should use, but, I implore you, for Remus, for Teddy, to not hold back. We need his information. We do not need him. If you do not, he will walk free. We simply don’t have enough evidence.”
Harry carefully schooled his expression so that he could have time to think. It was fundamentally wrong what he was being asked to do, and it was an incredibly low blow for Kingsley to use Remus and Teddy as an excuse to manipulate him into breaking the law. But, he also wasn’t wrong. Fenrir Greyback was the foulest, evilest person – no, thing – Harry had ever encountered, apart from maybe Voldemort and the information the werewolf had could make the 6% that continued to echo in the back of Harry’s mind significantly less. He had killed Voldemort. Why should he allow Greyback to continue to hurt innocents?
Carefully, he allowed his magic to unfurl slightly around him. The candles in the sconces on the wall started to flicker and the desk started to rattle. “Never use my godson to manipulate me into doing anything again, Minister,” Harry said coldly. Kingsley tried not to look intimidated, but Harry could see his eyes widen a fraction. He pulled the magic back in. The lights flickered back to their normal warm glow, and the desk was now suspiciously still. “Accidental magic,” Harry said with a shrug, maintaining his glare. He paused, mostly for dramatic effect at this point, but then nodded slowly. “On one condition. I need a list of all who were orphaned in the war."
"That should be possible," Kingsley said after a moment.
Harry sighed but steeled himself. "I won’t do anything here. Give me the afternoon. I will find a place."
Kingsley looked at Harry with scrutiny. “How will you get him out?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Harry said. “Plausible deniability.”
Kingsley frowned but nodded. “Thank you, Harry,” he said quietly. “I’ll meet you here at midnight.”
Harry nodded tiredly. He raised a hand and willed the privacy wards to drop. They did. “May I use your floo to leave, sir?” he asked with no trace of the malice that had been in his voice only moments before. “I can’t bear to face the crowds.”
“Of course,” Kingsley said brightly, waving at the fireplace. He looked significantly relieved, as if a large weight was off his shoulders.
As Harry stepped through the floo, however, he could feel the weight land heavily on his own.