Chapter 1 - New Moon
23rd September 2003, 11:08 PM
Harry lay in his bed in the newly renovated 12 Grimauld Place; which had taken two years even with the help of Magic. For the first few years after the end of the Second Battle of Hogwarts, Harry had moved in with Andromeda Tonks to help her raise his God-son Theodore 'Teddy' Remus Lupin.
It was only two years ago when Teddy turned five that he thought it was high time to get a place of his own. Initially Harry had considered rebuilding his parent's home in Godric's Hollow but then decided against it as the ruins symbolized much more to the wizarding world than just the Potter Residence.
He had then decided to move in to one of the Black's or Potter's other homes which he had inherited from his Parents and Sirius but considering the fact that most of the properties were either in small hamlets, towns or far in the country he decided against them as well. This left Grimauld Place.
While Harry didn't have the best of memories associated with the house, he knew that he didn't have anywhere else to go which would remind him of home. Two years ago Harry had moved into 12 Grimauld Place with two trunks and a batty old House-Elf. While Kreacher had been excited to return, Harry grimaced as soon as he heard Sirius' mother cursing from behind the veiled portrait.
The first thing Harry did was use the severing charm on the wall on which the portrait had been stuck. He then magically reduced the size of the cut out wall, put it in a trunk that he found in the basement and cast a permanent silencing charm on it. With that done, he then vanished the severed heads of the House Elves that were mounted on plaques on the flight of stairs to reduce the grimness and foreboding of the house.
Satisfied with himself, Harry then took too find a room for himself. The last three times Harry had stayed here he had always shared a room with Ron or slept in the Living room. This time however, he had decided to find a room for himself.
While his first thought however had been to take Sirius' old room, he decided against it as the memories of his Godfather would never allow him to sleep and constantly remind him of his Godfather falling through the veil in the Department of Mysteries. Harry then scouted several rooms on all three floors of the house finally deciding upon taking Sirius' grandfather's room for himself which was least Slytherin like and saw a lot of Light throughout the day with an entire wall of glass.
Once settled in his new room, Harry gave Andromeda and Mrs Weasley the responsibility to get his new home renovated and Bill the responsibility to secure the place for his friends and family in a time of need.
Two years down the line, 12 Grimauld Place on the inside looked nothing like it had done two years ago much to Kreacher's chagrin but nevertheless if it pleased Harry, Kreacher wasn't going to start complaining.
It was Half-past Eleven at night when Harry felt his Auror's badge tingle with heat. Even though the badge wasn't on his person it had been charmed to make the bearer aware of a call to duty.
Harry got up from his bed and made his way to the large oak dresser against the wall opposite to the glass wall. As he neared the dresser he saw his badge glowing a bright red.
Murder, was the first thought that crossed Harry's mind as he saw the badge glow red. In addition to being charmed to make their bearer's aware of their duty, the badges were also charmed to warn them as to what they were being called in to investigate.
A Red Glow predominantly meant that blood had been spilt.
Harry walked in to his closet and changed into his Auror's robes after taking a quick shower. He then walked back to his dresser and tapped the middle drawer thrice while reciting an inaudible spell under his breath. The drawer's lock clicked and it opened to reveal the young Auror's personal collection of magical artifacts.
Harry considered taking his invisibility cloak but then decided against it since this wasn't an espionage or tracking mission. His hand then went to three boxes kept one beside the other, the three boxes which hosted the other three wands that he owned in addition to his Holly and Phoenix feather wand.
Harry put his hand on the first box feeling a vague sense of familiarity and warmth from it. His own wand too tingled at the sensation and spread a warmth through his being. While the two wands together were powerful Harry had never been comfortable using them together or the other wand singularly except for when he was on the chase to put Jugson behind bars.
That was the first and last time he had used both wands together as it was the need of the hour. That had been a year and a half ago and the power had been nearly overwhelming.
Harry withdrew his hand from the first box and proceeded to open the third box not even sparing a second glance on the box in the middle. As soon as Harry withdrew the wand from his box, he felt a deep sense of loyalty from it. This had once been Draco's wand but Harry had won it's Allegiance in a duel and thus the sense of loyalty that the wand seemed to emanate.
Harry locked the drawer and stowed both wands in their holsters.
He then called Kreacher and configured the wards to not let anyone but a few in, while he was out of the house. Harry then took the badge in his hand and disapparated, the badge acting as a portkey which would take him to the safest apparation point closest to the crime site.
With a loud crack Harry disapparated only to re-appear in what he thought was a Suburban house just outside of London. He seemed to have apparated in the Kitchen. With wand in hand Harry proceeded to the Living room where several people were speaking in slow hushed tones.
As he walked to the Living room, the smell of Fresh blood hit his nostrils and he could almost taste the metallic stench on the tip of his tongue.
Definitely murder, he thought to himself as he entered the Living room to find the entire carpet bathed in blood and two mangled bodies lying on it.
A couple of other wizards who he recognized from work were there, with Hermione being the only Witch. Harry nodded and walked towards her.
"What happened here?" He asked her, as they observed a mediwizard analyze the bodies while the hit wizards gathered all manner of evidences.
"The Department of Improper Use of Magic detected the use of an unidentified Hex in this suburb where they didn't have a record of any Magical families except for a Muggleborn child who lived in this very house." She said, her voice growing small with every word.
Harry observed the expressions on the face of the two adults, that of pain and suffering but not that of the Cruciatus Curse. The cuts on the father's body seemed to be the cause of the pooling of blood and his apparent death.
Bile rose in Harry's mouth as he stepped forward and crouched to observe the cuts. They seemed like slashes which were meant to bleed. He knew of one such curse and had even used it a couple of times but only once by accident.
"The woman was killed by a werewolf" announced the mediwizard in a somewhat sombre voice to the Aurors and the Hit Wizards.
"The man was cursed" Harry said in a flat tone, his gaze unfaltering from the the slashes across the man's body.
"How do you know she was killed by a werewolf?" Hermione asked the mediwizard walking up to the victim to observe the injuries that the mediwizard was pointing to.
"You see the gashes on her throat. It seemed the werewolf killed her by ripping her throat out plus this potion hear reveals the presence of werewolf venom on a wound." the Mediwizard said confidently.
"Why would a werewolf come out and kill her. It isn't even a Full moon, on the contrary it's a New Moon night." She argued.
"Beats me" said the mediwizard, shrugging and gathering the blood samples from the body.
Hermione simply shook her head in annoyance and noted everything down in a pad.
"What curse do you think the man was killed by Potter?" asked Auror Mallory from behind him. Mallory was a senior Auror who was one of the leaders of resistance within the Ministry during the Second Wizarding War.
"Difficult to say Sir but it's not one on records. Looks like someone invented it and decided not to share it." Harry said, looking at Hermione pointedly while saying the latter and then averted his gaze to meet that of the Senior Auror.
"Have we had any luck on finding the child." Hermione asked the Senior Auror, her voice full of concern.
"We have a couple of Aurors looking for him but they haven't reported back on anything." Mallory said.
"Wouldn't the kid still have the trace on him." Harry questioned, surprised at what Mallory had just said.
Mallory sighed, "He does but we can't seem to track him with it." He then looked directly at Hermione, "We seem to have lost him."
"Lost him?" She asked.
"Yes Ms Granger." Mallory re-asserted, "It seems to us that the boy has vanished without a trace."
Harry didn't know what to think but he knew for sure that something wasn't right. An hour passed before the wizards decided there was nothing more for them to do here. They re-created the scene to mimic one of a thief breaking in and killing both the adults so as to not leave any seed of suspicion when the muggle police come looking.
The wizards began to disapparate one by one. Before disapparating Harry signaled to Hermione to meet him back at Grimauld Place. The night had just started.
Review