Harry and Ginny were now staying in London, in the Muggle world. They had left Ron and Hermione with their children James, Albus and Lily. They were staying in an apartment in the south side of the city. He was there for a very important job, so dangerous that only someone powerful enough to take down Voldemort could be trusted with it.
On the third morning of their stay, Harry got up at the crack of dawn, kissed Ginny on the head and hurriedly made his way down to the front office, where there would be a man waiting for him. Sure enough, there was. He was dressed in a black suit and had a lion badge on his left breast pocket. He had dark glasses and a black hat covering all his hair. He had a dead straight face. Harry walked up to him and said:
"Business of the Ministry?" The man nodded and walked out to a cab parked out the front. He opened the back door and Harry got in. The man then walked round to the front and got into the driver's seat. He took of his dark glasses and turned to face Harry.
"Harry! Mate, long times no see!" He took of his black hat and a bulge of red hair came from under it. He smiled a cheeky grin and held out his hand to Harry's.
"George! How ya' been?" Harry shook George Wealsey's hand firmly before he turned back and drove off.
"So, tell me what's happening. All this secret business, must be pretty serious?" George was usually mischievous and plain naughty, even as an adult, but if there was one thing that he was, it was trustworthy and loyal. That's two but… moving on… Harry knew he could trust him with the secrets he had.
"Well, we've located one of Riddle's relatives. She is an orphan and has been known to do… abnormal things. Ministry of Magic sent me here to check on things. She is 10 but if she is anything like the Riddle family, she will be a high achiever. We are thinking about bringing her into Hogwarts early," Harry explained, throwing his wand from hand to hand. He was definitely nervous. George noticed.
"Cool! Nervous much?" He smiled knowingly. George had been through quiet a lot since the Battle of Hogwarts. He was a spy for the Ministry of Magic. Even with Voldemort gone, there was still plenty of evil. "Alright, we're here," George pulled over and Harry got out, straightened his suit and walked up to the great big door on the ugly green orphanage building. It was three storeys high and the windows were barred. Looked like a prison, more than an orphanage. Harry knocked four times and stood back. An old grey man with a limp pulled the door open, with a great amount of effort. He looked Harry up and down and then called out:
"Petunia! We got a business man at the door!" Harry shivered at the name. Petunia. A fat, young lady with lots of blonde hair wearing a pink tracksuit waddled up to the door.
"Oh! You must be the doctor here for Chicago Riddle! Oh come in lovey!" The woman, Petunia, spoke with an extremely high voice, as if she had been inhaling helium. She waddled up to the desk, which was a big wooden thing with no design to it. The walls were carpeted a brown colour and all the curtains were drawn. There were loads of filing cabinets along every wall. Harry looked curiously at them.
"Never get rid of a record, we don't! Do we Campbell?" the grey man nodded his head slightly, as if any more motion and it would drop off entirely.
"Yes, I'm here for Chicago," He paused, taking in his surroundings, "How did you come up with her name?" Harry had to learn as much about her as possible. Petunia sat behind the desk and went through a bunch of files.
"When she was dropped at our door step there was a note on her blanket. It read: Riddle. And the box she was in had Chicago printed on the side. That's how we get all our children's names. Generally anyway," She pulled out a plastic sleeve which had four photographs and half a page of writing. She handed it to Harry. He looked curiously at the photos. There was an unusual green light about one of them. Another was a picture of a baby in a box. There were two pictures of blurred silhouettes flying past the moon. Harry recognized these as two wizards on broomsticks. The half page of writing basically summed up her details like height, weight and eye colour and said there was no known parent. "This is all we have of her. There isn't a lot of information, but would you like to meet her?" Petunia stared at Harry before putting a chocolate bar in her mouth.
"Yes. And why is your voice so high?" Harry didn't mean to ask it. It just sort of came out. He became to apologize but he was interrupted.
"I did it! Her voice was so dull before. I made it better. I'm good at making things better," Her voice was so young and innocent. Her black hair was straight and ran past her shoulders. She was very white skinned and thin. She had childish features, but dark sad eyes. She looked so tired and well… dark. Yet her voice betrayed that. Such an innocent childish voice paired with a sad, lonely person and a family secret bigger and badder then any other. She was standing at the bottom of the stairs and staring at Harry.
"Hello. You must be Chicago," Harry got on his knees so he was the same height as her. "My name's Harry," He held out his hand for a shake, but instead the girl ran upstairs. Harry followed quickly. Chicago turned into one of the rooms and slammed the door. Harry opened it cautiously, knowing what she could do. Behind the door, he saw a blank room with one uncomfortable looking bed, one black cupboard and a barred window. Chicago couldn't be seen. Harry closed the door behind him.
"Chicago? I'm here to help," Harry called out. He suspected she was in the cupboard.
"No! Doctors don't help. Go away," She called out, but it sounded as if the whole room called out. He couldn't tell where she was. Harry had to say he was a doctor when he organised the appointment, he couldn't say he was an Auror here to see if a child was actually an extremely dark wizard capable of destroying life as we know it. He opened the cupboard carefully. She wasn't there. But what was there shocked Harry. There was a cauldron and a book of spells. The spells book had been written on and used a lot. Certain things were highlighted and others crossed out and corrected. She had been studying. 'Forget bringing her in a year early,' Harry thought as he flipped through the pages, 'send her straight to year 4,' He put the book back and examined the cauldron. It had been used a lot and was growing old. From the condition of the cupboard he could tell there were a lot of potions gone wrong here. Then Harry heard something he was dreading. A whisper from under the bed, but not in English. It was in fact, in Parseltongue. Harry understood every word she spoke.
"Why is he here, Basta? We know don't we? He is a doctor. We should get rid of him," Harry looked under the bed. She was lying down, talking to a rather large lizard. Harry had never seen anything like it. It had grapple-hook like claws and rough bumpy greenish-grey skin.
"Basta, come out here for me," Harry called the lizard out. Chicago was shocked. She crawled out after him and sat cross legged on the bed. "Tell Chicago that I'm like her, I'm here to take her to a place where everyone is like her," Basta sprung off the ground and into her lap. He crawled up her arm and began whispering to her.
"I heard him!" She roughly pushed him off and he scampered out the window, between the bars. Harry watched him go.
"That's how I get all my stuff. He steals it and brings it to me," She looked slightly guilty yet pleased with herself at the same time. "You're gonna take me to that jail place aren't you?"
"No, Chicago. There is a place, a school, full of people just like you. They have the same powers that you have," Harry knew this was a lie. Most students at Hogwarts couldn't even dream of the power this girl had. "You will be taught not just how to use magic, but how to control it," Harry was crouching in front of her, looking up into her eyes. He knew that she understood. He knew that she wanted that place, wanted to go with him but it was against what she did. She lived for herself, always had always will. "What do you think?"
She stared at Harry, her glare as cold as ice. She had her hands intertwined and they were getting sweaty. Her eye twitched and suddenly Harry saw sadness and fear beneath the cold glare.
"I'll come back, okay? I'll be back soon," Harry stood up and was about to walk out before he bent down and put his hand on hers. She recoiled quickly so he left her there, scared and alone. He bided goodbye to Petunia and Campbell and walked out the door, hands in his pockets, head down. He jumped into the back of the car and drove off. He told George everything. George listened and didn't interrupt except for an occasional 'Mm,' or 'Good.' By the time they got to the hotel, Harry has said everything he wanted to. He said goodbye inside the car and didn't look back once he left. He took the elevator to his apartment. Ginny was sitting on the bed reading. She put her book down as Harry walked in and sat next to her. They held hands as Harry relived the whole day to her. He told her everything from the colour of the orphanage to the sadness and fear in her eyes.
"So she's really magic?" Ginny asked a hint of nervousness in her voice.
"Crawling with dark magic, but there is still hope. If she is treated right, we can save her from a fate she doesn't need," Harry was staring into space barely focusing on what he was saying. He was snapped back by Ginny giggling.
"From a fate she doesn't need," She said, mockingly. Harry laughed too and soon both were laughing so hard tears rolled down their cheeks. 'No need to worry about anything yet,' Harry told himself.