What's Life Without Risk?
By Stuffy the Author
Summary: Loosely based plot on the show Bones. Harry is a forensic anthropologist at the Ministry of Magic. His partner is Draco Malfoy. Solving murders, and growing interest in strange people, what could be better?
Author's Note: So, this idea has been running around my head for a while. I've always been interested in forensic anthropology, so I decided if I could write a fan fiction about it. This story is loosely base on my favorite show, Bones. If you haven't watched, go watch. It will eventually be HPDM. I promise.
Harry sat at his desk at the Ministry of Magic, sighing as he finished up some paperwork. So this was what the savior of the wizarding world had come to. An office job doing paperwork for the higher-ups. Signing his name at the bottom with a quill, he dropped the sheet into a box marked 'out'. Looking it over one last time, he read its contents again.
Name: Parvati Patil
Age: 25
Sex: Female
Race: Indian
Cause of Death: Multiple projectile firing curses to the head, chest, and back. Cardiac arrest.
Sighing again, Harry got up, slipping on a white lab robe and going into a room that was bustling with people all dressed similarly. Muttering the password, he stepped onto a raised platform that was guarded by a door of purple light that would shock and apprehend anyone who tried to get on there without saying the platform. Quite a few interns went this way, forgetting to say the relatively simple password of 'Anthropology'. But as it was a Muggle word, not many knew it.
Hopping up the few stairs, Harry briskly walked to the back of the platform, to one of many tables. However, unlike the other blindingly sterile tables, this one was covered in the decomposing body of one Parvati Patil. Most of the flesh was still intact, but the area around the what looked like bullet holes was bloody. Hermione Granger was standing next to the table, poking around in the flesh with gloved fingers.
"Find anything?" asked Harry as he snapped on some rubber gloves.
"Not yet," said Hermione, "But that's only to be expected when it's magical curses killing people." Harry nodded, looking down on Parvati's still recognizable face.
"At least we found her," he said softly, "And quickly." Hermione looked up, seeing the pain in Harry's eyes.
"I know, I know, it's hard for you to see another body of someone you knew," she said soothingly, "But you gotta get used to it. We've already solved the Abbott case and put that good for nothing bastard in Azkaban. We'll get this guy, too." When Harry nodded slightly, Hermione looked back down at the cold, still body of Parvati. "Well, I'm getting nothing. Not surprising, really. There wasn't even a wand at the scene of the crime. Well, wands aren't like guns. Can't just go around, buying all of them up. Still, it would have been nice to use Priori Incantatem or something, figure out who the killer was." She sighed. "Damn, wizard anthropology is so much harder than Muggle anthropology!" Muttering, she left the table to dispose of the dirty, bloody gloves.
Staring down at the unresponsive face of Parvati, Harry felt a swell of sadness. So many people had died in the war, and they were still dying. Unfortunately, now the murders couldn't be attributed to Voldemort, he was long gone. So the Ministry of Magic had set up a Department of Forensic Cases. Many of Harry's friends who had survived the war went to work here, trying to clean up the world just a little bit more.
Harry set down any tools he was going to use. What was the point? Poor Ms. Patil was killed with a wand, and wands never left gunpowder residue or silver flakes or anything. If she had been poisoned, now that would have been different.
Turning from the table, Harry was just in time to see Hermione and Ron sharing a quick kiss as she met him at the entrance to the platform. Ron was dressed in his dark black Auror robes, a name tag clipped to them. Harry frowned. Who was going to be his Auror partner on the case? He was head forensic wizard after all; he was the leading authority on the case.
"Harry, mate," called Ron, waving Harry over, "I'm supposed to give you your assigned Auror for the case." Ron held out a large manila envelope. Slitting the top, Harry took out a very official looking piece of parchment. The top was basically a bunch of political hooey, but finally, down at the bottom, was Harry's name, and next to it—
Auror Draco Malfoy.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Harry grumbled.
"What's the matter, mate?" asked Ron, looking over Harry's shoulder.
"I've got Malfoy as my partner for the case," said Harry, a disgusted look on my face. Ron's face screwed up into one of pity.
"Ouch. Sorry 'bout that. Wish we'd get partnered up sometime," he said lamely. Harry sighed.
"Yeah. Well, best go meet with Auror Malfoy and explain what we've got. Oh, by the way Hermione, have you come up with a list of suspects yet?" Harry asked her.
Hermione shook her head. "I asked the Auror department to do that. We haven't gotten one back yet. Don't forget, they have to run background checks and get statements from every single one of them." Harry nodded, then stepped off the platform so he could go and find one Draco Malfoy.
"Can I help you?" Malfoy drawled, not even bothering to look up from the paperwork he was working on as someone came into his office.
"I don't know. Don't think you're very skilled at the whole anthropology thing," came a familiar voice back at him. Looking up, Malfoy looked into the frowning face of Harry Potter, and scowled.
"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be with your squints back at the lab?" he asked, looking back at the paper in his hands.
"I would, except that this little piece of parchment right here says you're my partner for the Patil case," replied Harry, slamming the envelope down on the desk, right under Malfoy's nose. Malfoy scanned it.
"Well, what do you know. It does," he drawled, examining it. "Fine. What do you got for me?"
Harry frowned at Malfoy's lack of concern, but launched into business. A murder was no place for bickering. "The victim was Parvati Patil. She was 25 at the time of her attack, which was 2 to 3 days ago. She was found lying on the floor of her flat, covered in blood, by her sister, Padma Patil, who had gone to check up on her. The cause of death is some sort of projectile curse, with 15 shots to the head, chest, and back regions. If those didn't kill her, then the bleeding out would have caused her heart to go into cardiac arrest," Harry rattled off. Malfoy just nodded.
"Any suspects?"
"Hermione asked one of your guys to find and do background checks and get statements from all possible suspects. They still haven't gotten back to us yet."
Malfoy turned back to his work. "Alright. That's all for now." Harry stood, shocked by this sudden dismissal.
"Is that it?" he asked, confused. "We don't do anything else until the suspect list arrives?" Malfoy shook his head.
"Nope. Well, you and your little rats can go look at the body some more, tell me what you find if anything interesting comes up, but that's all for now. We can't do anything until we have a suspect list."
Harry grumbled a good-bye and left, hoping that he and Malfoy could keep their tempers in check during this whole ordeal. Hopefully, it would be a short one.
Weeks later, Harry looked back on that thought and tried to kill himself.
Alright, so this is my first attempt at writing an actual plot. If any of you are familiar with the Zodiac slayings, you may find some similarities, as well as Jack the Ripper. Thanks for reading, please review!
Love as always,
Stuffy the Author
