Title: The Monsters we Create
Summary: The wizard world needs Harry's help once again. Another evil is rising and they're victims don't seem to follow a pattern. Can Harry save the world a second time? Or will the monsters that the wizard world created rule?
Pairings: Draco/Harry, Scorpius/Albus Severus, Ron/Hermione, and possible Luna/Ginny
Warnings: Slash, possible Fem-slash, Slight bashing (but it'll come from the characters' mouths), and Graphic violent scenes/deaths
Notes:
1. A lot of people are Aurors. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnegan, Stewart Ackerly, Susan Bones, Terry Boot, and Angelina Johnson (now Weasley since she is married to George).
2. Harry is head of the Department of Magical Law Inforcement (MLI for short later).
3. Albus Severus and Scorpius were sorted into Slytherin. Rose was sorted into Griffindor. But all three of them are best friends, however, Albus and Scorpius are closer since they're boys and are in the same house.
Whoot! This is my first Harry Potter fanfic! I'm usually a Hetalia: Axis Powers writer, but I decided to give Harry Potter a try. But that doesn't mean that you have to hold back, please give me the best and most constructive criticism that you can get! I am really new to writing Harry Potter fanfiction and I just want to make sure that I'm not making the character too Out-of-character or something. Please be prepared for a long fic full of semi-hiatuses. HOPE YOU ENJOY READING!
"I'm going to beat you again Albus! Just you wait, next time you see the snitch Potter, it'll be in my hands." Malfoy's son stated.
"Yeah right, that was just a fluke last practice. After all, why else would I be Slytherin seeker while you're the reserve? Because I've led our team to victory for 3 straight years!" The brunette said, poking his best friend's cheek with a wide grin on his face.
"But you've been flying since you were 9 years old. I didn't even pick up a broom until I entered Hogwarts. You're two years ahead of everyone."
"Excuses, excuses, say whatever you want Scorpius but it doesn't change the fact I'm a better flyer than you. But if you want to change my attitude, than why don't we wager something? Whoever loses has to buy the winner ice cream." Al said, licking his lips in anticipation of the sugary treat.
"You are really obsessed with ice cream. Actually, not just ice cream, but Chocolate Frogs, Cauldron cakes, Liquorice wands, Sugar quills, and Tooth flossing string mints, just to name a few of your obsessions Al. If you don't stop eating so many sweets, you're going to get fat and your little boyfriend is going to stop hanging around you."
"Lorcan is not my boyfriend! The twins are just my friends. You're just jealous that I hang out with other people more than you!" Albus Severus growled and started thumping his fists against Scorpius' chests.
"Whoa! I'm just kidding. Merlin Al, you really are too sensitive. You know you're not fat and I know you guys are just friends. Jeez, now come on let's play!" The Malfoy boy giggled, poking his friend on the cheek in retaliation. Albus sighed but nodded. Soon both boys quickly mounted their brooms and released the snitch.
Harry stepped out of his house, holding a beige mug full of coffee. He breathed in the scent of the drink before he took a small sip of the piping hot liquid. The older man loved the burning his throat from the coffee. Potter smiled up at his son and his friend, remembering how he and Ron were at fifteen. He made a mental note to contact the red head and his other friends to play a friendly game for old times sake. As he was walking down memory lane (as muggles would put it) he sat down on the bench in the backyard without even looking. It wasn't until Harry Potter took another sip did the guest on the other side of the long bench say anything.
"They're so different than us, aren't they? Well, actually, Scorpius and I are much alike which means really your son is very different from you."
"Malfoy? How did you get here?" Harry frowned. Both men were neutral to each other now, but there was still some tension from their youth.
"My son and I apparated here to your estate. A little humble for my taste, but it certainly seems like the type of housing you'd be attracted to." The older blonde said, wiggling his eyebrows somewhat suggestively.
"Whatever Malfoy, just behave and I won't have to hex you. You're lucky it's me; my wife is a little more quicker at drawing her wand." Harry said before sipping his coffee. Both men watched their sons silently, hearing nothing but the wind and the boy's chatting away happily in the air. Suddenly, Harry started thinking about what Draco said.
Scorpius had visited the Potter's house multiple times during the summer. Harry didn't know the young man as well Albus, but he knew enough about the blonde to see that he was much nicer than his father during their school days. Perhaps the older Malfoy male was talking about some hidden traits that weren't seen very often.
"Hey Malfoy, what did you mean earlier?"
"You need to elaborate more Potter. Earlier can go back as far as our school days."
"I meant that you said Albus and I aren't similar in personality and you and your son are. What did you mean by that?"
"Nothing really Potter, I was just making an observation. We are not friends, and yet our sons are friends. Since my son and I are so similar in nature, then the natural conclusion is that your son is different from you." The blonde father said while inspecting his nails.
"Actually, out of all of my children, Albus is the one that is most similar to me. Lily is more like Ginny, and James is sadly, as annoying as my father was during his teens. I think you and Scorpius are the ones who are different. I don't remember him trying to get Albus in trouble all the time." Harry laughed.
Suddenly, Harry could hear Draco laughing softly as well and asked the blonde what he found funny.
"They obviously didn't tell you about their first year. Albus was a nice boy and would try to include Scorpius with his and Rose's activities, but my son was a stubborn child. My son would steal sweets from Albus' owl and your son's revenge was hiding under that invisibility cloak and hide while throwing snowballs at Scorpius." Harry laughed, remembering how he did the same to Draco when they were young too.
The door creaked open. Harry's laughter died down and he set his mug on the ground and held the door so that his wife could navigate out of the house easier. Ginerva was holding a platter with a large pile of lemon squares and a foldable table to set them on.
"Oh, hello Malfoy, odd seeing you here at my house. Is this work or personal?" Ginny said, placing the platter on top of the table.
"No, no Auror work on this visit. Potter and I aren't in the same department. I deal with what the Ministry of Magic calls 'lesser crimes' where victims are usually live to tell us what happened. Unfortunately, your husband seems to never run into this luxury. He is only given pictures of victims whose souls have past through the veil. But I'm sure you already know all about that."
"Then why are you here Malfoy? I'm sure you aren't surprised that I'm not the biggest fan of your presence."
"I'm here for my son. After all, those two aren't allowed to apparate without an adult until they're seventeen and have their license. After all, I don't want to risk the chance of him getting splinched like that Hufflepuff girl."
The boys descended down, Albus Severus holding his left arm up high with the golden snitch in his hand, and a large smile on his face. The fifteen year old charged to his father, nearly knocking him over in his excitement. Scorpius trailed behind. The blonde rolled his eyes at his friend's reaction, but had a small smile on his face.
"Dad, I caught it! I caught it!"
"Yes son, I can clearly see that. Now if you don't mind, you're kind of crushing me with your grip." Al loosened his grip around his father and blushed.
"Here honey, have a lemon square. I know you like them." Albus' eyes lit up and he immediately grabbed two of them. He quickly scarfed down both, earning faces full of awe and slight disgust from everyone else in the backyard.
"Well... I think that the Malfoys owe you some ice cream from Florian Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. Come on, grab my arm boys!" Draco ordered, waving his arm to motion the two teenagers over to him.
"Malfoy, remember, I can still use the Bat-Bogey hex on you-"
"Yes, yes, red head, I still remember. Your son will be fine. Goodbye Potters, hopefully you'll get used to basking in my shining presence soon and lose that hostility in your voices." Draco said. Both Harry and Ginny rolled their eyes at Draco, while Scorpius and Albus laughed. Soon both boys gripped Draco's arm and with a loud pop they disappeared.
"Honestly, he hasn't changed at all since we were kids." Ginerva said, grabbing a square for herself. Harry shrugged.
"I thought he was surprisingly civil. It is Malfoy Ginny, so don't expect Mother Teresa over night."
"Who?" Harry smiled. He forgot that his wife didn't get muggle allusions, and he found it adorable that she was still confused.
"Mother Teresa was a nun who tried to help people reach peace before they died. She even obtained sainthood." Ginny laughed.
"I wasn't expecting that from Malfoy. But really, Ron said that you've saved his life twice. The least he can do is try a little harder to not be such a... a..."
"A cold-blooded coward full of talk?"
"Well, I wouldn't go that far but yes." Harry sighed and grabbed himself one of his wife's treats. He bit into the sweet confection, moaning slightly in pleasure. Ginny smiled and brushed some of her husband's unruly hair away from his face. Even though Harry was almost forty-two, his hair was still as thick as when she first met him when he was eleven. The scar on Harry's forehead was now a faint pink, for Voldemort's presence no longer exacerbated it and caused it to tear. But the scar wasn't a bad feature on the brunette's face. The scar forced the gazer to travel down and look into the electric green eyes that were inherited from his mother.
"What are you doing Ginny?"
"I was just thinking about how handsome you are."
"Ginny, I think you're growing delusional. How can someone so beautiful think that about me?" Harry leaned forward to gently kiss the red head. He smiled when he felt her soft, thin lips against his rough, chapped ones. He rested his large hand on her thin waist, pulling her body a little closer to him. Whenever they kissed now, Harry liked to have his eyes open. It was to see her face. Ginny's face and how much she really seemed to want to be with Harry in that moment, which made Harry's heart swell in joy. Just as he was about to press through the barrier of her lips with his tongue, the backyard door slammed open and crashed against the side of the house. They immediately drew apart to see it was their daughter Lily Luna.
"Dad, uncle Ron is here! He says it's urgent and work related!"
Harry nodded and went back inside the house. The brunette rushed into his office to see in best friend sitting on one of the couches. Harry's best friend appeared tired, but an unpredictable schedule was part of an Auror's life. Sleepless nights were sadly a normal occurrence.
"I'm sorry mate that I'm here. I know that I shouldn't come to you and talk about every case my partner and I get, but this one seems really urgent!"
"It's fine mate, Ginny and I understand completely. Well, actually, your sister might want to give you a punch in the face right now but I completely understand." Harry laughed. Ron smiled but couldn't do anymore than that. The brunette grew quiet. Aurors were exposed to many horrors in the magic world and have developed a hard shell to most crimes. A case that has silenced Ron's humor must be extremely terrible.
"Sorry Ron-"
"No Harry, it's just hard right now to laugh. Now, this is a little unusual situation that I don't really know who to talk to. Many people in the Ministry think that these cases aren't connected, but I do." Ron said in a low whisper, handing Harry three folders full of documents.
The first folder contained twenty-seven photos of hippogriffs, all decapitated and their wings clipped off. It wasn't like the way children would take apart their dolls in curiousity, this dismemberment was done with pent up anger. The stomach had a large gash running down all of them and the interior organs lay outside of the body. All the organs appear to have been stomped on, causing large pools of blood to soil the ground and the body. The whole ground where the hippogriffs lay was flooded with the animals' blood. Some of the bodies' were hollowed in the inside leaving nothing but bones. Harry didn't understand why the criminals would do that until he saw the last picture. There were strings of hippogriff muscle tissue and fibers hung in the low branches of trees, spelling out the words "Pure is tainted." Harry's breathe hitched. The sight of the message reminded him of his days with Voldemort and how the man would sickly leave messages for him.
The person who discovered the crime scene was the owner of the hippogriffs. Harold Dingle apparently after graduating Hogwarts seeked for a simple life and decided to go into the business of breeding hippogriffs for magical schools. The day before the slaughter was apparently routine. He went to sleep as normal but when he woke up to check on the hippogriffs, he was greeted to the sight of their dead bodies.
"We've checked out his story with veritaserum. He seemed to be telling the truth. Dingle hasn't even heard of occlumency before. He never went to much more schooling after Hogwarts. Besides, all of these animals... the way they were killed shows that there was a lot of rage. The owner just doesn't seem like the type of man capable of such actions."
"I wasn't concerned about him Ron. I was actually looking at that message, 'Pure is tainted.' What does the perpetrator mean by that?"
"I don't know mate, but it's sickening."
"I know, I can't help but think of Buckbeak when I look through these photos..."
"Sadly Harry, this is just being swept under the rug because they're animals. I had to fight tooth and nail to just look at that folder from the Department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. They think Dingle's broke and wants to collect the insurance that he has on the animals."
"I really don't think that he would kill all of them if that were the case."
"Yeah, and that message you were stuck on earlier, well it shows up in the other two cases too. The killings are way too similar to just be a coincidence."
The second folder that Harry picked up contained the murders of Millicent Bulstrode and Theodore Nott. The couple was out on a picnic near the Hogsmeade on Thursday when the village didn't have as many visitors. Many people witnessed the two walking on the path that leads to the Shrieking Shack, holding hands and laughing happily. It wasn't until Saturday that the couple's remains were found by three Hogwarts students. Neither were reported missing during that time. Any close relatives assumed that the two were with each other and didn't see their absence as strange.
Bulstrode and Nott's bodies were not as violently damaged as the hippogriffs, but it was still gruesome to see what was left of them. Their throats and wrists were cut and they were drained of all of their blood. The blood that was drained from their bodies was used to decorate the trees. The painted message "Pure is tainted" was on all of the trees near the Shrieking Shack.
But that wasn't what bothered Harry. The brunette was disturbed by the way the two were holding hands, even though they were dead. It reminded him of his own wife and how he would be there with her, even in death.
"I know they are Slytherins, but nobody deserves to die like that." Harry said almost inaudibly.
"Yeah, it's hard to see that in person. But the message is everywhere this time. I think the criminal escalated from killing creatures to human beings, which is why their deaths aren't as violent."
"Yes, I agree. But why won't they connect these cases? It's clear that they are related." Harry said.
"The victimology makes it highly unlikely. A person who wants to kill hippogriffs, pure bloods, and muggle borns is unusual-"
"Wait, the next case is a muggle born?" Harry asked, obviously surprised about the random assortment of victims himself.
"Yeah, remember my brother's ex girlfriend Penelope Clearwater? She died and had the phrase 'Pure is Tainted' on her left palm. The poor girl's head was shaved of all of her blonde, curly hair and was found in a broken store window naked. People passing by called the owner and the Ministry saying that there was a break in. They thought she was a mannequin until the department said otherwise and confirmed it was her."
"But why these people? What do they have in common? Nott and Bulstrode are brunettes and pure bloods. Penelope is a blonde and muggle born. The hippogriffs are hybrid animals. What is this criminal trying to accomplish?"
"I don't know Harry, but there is one thing that is certain. This person or group of people are going to strike again. I don't know how to warn to public. The Ministry thinks it's unwise to warn the public without knowing who or what the criminal is targeting. But everyone who works in the Auror Department is getting paranoid. They are thinking this criminal or criminals are going to attempt mass genocide just like Voldemort."
Harry sighed.
"Another Voldemort? Highly unlikely, but this person certainly has an agenda. If we find out what they desire, we can find out who they are from there. Contact Seamus and Dean, tell them to apparate to my place to see if we can create a profile on possible personality traits the criminal might possess. I'll try to find a way for Ginny to not be so pissed at us bringing work home again."
"Both of them should be in their office. See you in a bit Harry," Ron said and with a loud crack, he vanished.
Yay! First chapter! It sucks but hey, I'm a newbie and I'm sure I'll get better once I get constructive reviews with great advise. ^_^
Read and Review please!