A/N: Hi everyone, and welcome to my new story. This one is in the process of being written, and will probably be around 7-8 chapters long, I've not fully decided yet. I've got ideas for probably that many anyway, and more keep cropping up. It was written for the SIYE challenge entitled "Dudley's Turn". I would outline the challenge, but actually, I believe this story will stand on its own without the challenge, so I'm only using it as a rough guideline anyway. I'd rather you enjoy the piece without having to worry about if I'm hitting every aspect of the challenge.

I'd like to thank my Beta, as usual, seekers_destiny from SIYE, for looking over this in double quick time. I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything you see here, beyond the plot, and I'm definitely making no money from this.


Oppression by Association

Chapter 1 – Return to Privet Drive

"Sometimes, I wish we never cracked these damned cases"

It wasn't the first time that he had muttered these words to himself during his tenure in the Auror Corps, but every time Harry Potter always found himself feeling a little guilty about the statement. He couldn't deny the truth in front of him though.

While working a big case, Auror Potter found himself enjoying his job immensely. It wasn't the satisfaction of busting potions rings or locking up smugglers that made it good, he actually found the process of catching them to be astounding, despite being a year into his employment and well past the 'honeymoon period' that many of his colleagues had described.

The fact was however, that paperwork was boring. And there was a lot of it, especially with the bigger cases. In the past year he had been part of a team that had cracked five large cases, including two big players in the potion dealing trade, and one double homicide. The latest, a batch of hallucinogenics that had gone viral, particularly among Quidditch stars, had been busted last Thursday, and the creator of the potions locked away in ministry holding cells for questioning this coming Tuesday; tomorrow.

After a long weekend which he had gladly spent with his fiancée, rising Quidditch talent Ginny Weasley, Harry had found himself dreading his return to work and the amount of reports he'd need to fill in, treble check, quadruple sign and send to various departments over the coming week. Normally, it would take until the Friday afternoon before everything would be completed, and by then, the long weekend would seem so much further away than it actually was.

It didn't help that his partner Ron, who had volunteered to fetch dinner half an hour ago, in order to get away from the paper in front of him, had yet to return, and Harry was starting to debate whether his friend had got lost.

He dipped his quill into his ink once more and started to write about their initial investigations after the first week of potion-interrupted Quidditch matchs, where three of the lower ranking teams in the league had reported seeing dragons, thestrals and even merpeople flying around the pitch alongside their opponents, when he heard a flurry of movement outside his cubicle, and his door was wrenched open. His wand was in his hand and pointing towards the door in an instant, before he realised the intruder was Ron, who looked like he had sprinted from the lift.

"Harry, I've just bumped into Perry, from accidental reversal, he was on his way down here."

Harry's grip on his wand lessened and he breathed out a breath he didn't realise he was holding. If AMRAS (Accidental Magic Reversal and Alteration Squad) had received the call before the Aurors, then whatever Ron had stumbled upon couldn't have been too important.

"Seriously Ron, don't scare me like that. You know last time you burst into my office like that I cursed without warning."

Ron of all people should have known this, he hadn't been able to sit down for three days without wincing.

As if recalling the incident, he flinched, but then continued "Sorry Harry, but it's important. He says he needs you to meet him, come on." And with that, he was gone from the cubicle door.

Harry sighed, stowed his work away into his desk for later, and got up, his leg muscles protesting as he did. Then, he followed after his friend, waving his wand to close and lock his cubicle. Ron was waiting for him by the apparition point.

"Ok, at least tell me where we're going so I don't splinch myself. Do you have coordinates?" he asked.

"No need Harry, you know the way." Ron replied, a note of apprehension in his voice. "We're heading for Privet Drive."


The two arrived with a pop on the corner of Privet Drive. The street was largely as Harry remembered it, all pristine houses that looked like they were hardly lived in. He couldn't believe he'd used to call this place 'home'. There was nothing homey about it.

"Perry says he won't disturb anything until you get here." Ron explained quickly, and they started to walk towards number four. The house looked untouched, but Harry could trace a faint haze which suggested a concealment charm. A short, balding man, Perry, hurried up to them, looking glad to see the two had arrived.

"Potter, Weasley, thank Merlin you're here. You have no idea how difficult it is to stop these younger trainees from cleaning up all this mess quickly, thinking they'll impress their seniors." He shook his head. "I've set up concealment and very small muggle repelling charms around the house. With it being a muggle neighbourhood, we can't do much more than that. The lads are working on the memories of everyone who saw and heard the explosion."

Harry's eyebrows raised at the last word. An explosion in Privet Drive, with magic involved? This sounded more like Auror work than AMRAS. He didn't question it though, and let Perry continue his report, "she asked for you specifically Potter. Normally we wouldn't get the Aurors out for something like this, but she was adamant you came. Have you dealt with her before?" He asked, curiously.

"You could say that," Harry muttered. It was understandable that his aunt would call on him, as he was the only contact of the wizarding world she had, barring her sister. However, that didn't change the fact that her hatred of wizards was only surpassed by her denial that she was related to one.

"You should be able to see the damage when you enter the garden. I'll leave you to it, call in any help you need, I know you Auror types like to have your own team of healers and investigators."

With that, Perry hurried off to look after his trainees, all of whom looked far too eager to prove that they could handle this without Auror help. Harry and Ron turned to the house.

"Guess we'll see what's happened then." Harry said, and stepped onto the driveway. Instantly, the image before him shifted to one of complete mayhem. Most of the side of the house had been blown completely away, bricks scattered around the garden, which was white with dust. Harry could see the entirety of the living room and front bedroom, his Aunt and Uncle's. The wallpaper was charred and blackened, and there wasn't a single ornament left. It looked a lot like the devastation left after had blown the fireplace up whilst picking him up for the Quidditch World Cup before his fourth year. Harry had to hold back a chuckle at the memory. This was a lot more serious.

Ron had his wand out and was casting a few detection spells at the house. "There's been a huge outburst of magic here. It's like nothing I've seen since the war. There are not many people with this sort of magical power in them, Kingsley perhaps, or you."

"But from the damage, the magic came from inside the house." Harry muttered, and Ron nodded his agreement. Harry was briefly taken back to the house in Godric's Hollow that his parents and he had lived in. This surpassed even that carnage. "Let's go inside."

He gripped his wand tighter and cast a quick spell on the floor of the upstairs, to make sure it would properly hold as they went through, and then stepped over the rubble and into the house. There was a large, black circle in the center of the floor. Inside this circle, there was little damage, save for the carpet being seared completely away.

"The origin of the blast was here. Looks quite large, I'd say like a bomb, but I've not heard of anything that recreates bombs with magic, have you?" Ron shook his head in response.

"Not that you could use in this way anyway, unless the Unspeakables have been working on something new, but I don't know why they would be."

Harry cast around the room once more. Other than the charred circle in the middle, and the destruction around, there was very little left to go on from an investigations standpoint.

"There's nothing else here, let's check the kitchen."

The two walked out of the living room, into the kitchen and paused.

Sitting in front of them, wrapped in a towel and sobbing heavily, was Petunia Dursley. However, the shocking part was her son, Dudley, lying on a conjured medical table, his skin pulsing with a faint, white light.


A/N: Thank you for reading. I don't expect much fanfare from this, as its just an introduction, but your comments will always be greatly appreciated.