Chapter Three
On The Run
Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody was barely eighteen when he joined the Auror force in 1902. By the time of the Muggle Great War he was in command of his own squad, and was known to be highly skilled and relentless to his foes.
In the early 1930s rumours started of a Dark Lord operating out of the German republic, and it was Moody who at that time convinced the Minister and Head of the Auror Office to be prepared. When Grindelwald openly declared war on the German ministry backed by the Knights of Walpurgis, terrorist attacks also started in Britain. Moody was the one who eventually took down the first leader of the Knights of Walpurgis on Britain's soil, losing his eye in the progress when Cadmus Malfoy hit him with a dark variant of the Conjunctivitis Curse followed by a cutter. Blinded and bleeding, Moody still took Cadmus and his henchmen down, ending the major operations of the Knights in Britain.
While he was recovering from his wounds Dumbledore finally took action against his childhood friend, and ended the European Wizarding War by taking down Grindelwald in a duel. However peace would not come, as the Knights were never completely disbanded, and would continue attacks on Muggles and Muggleborn for the next few decades. Moody was convinced Cadmus' brother Abraxas was behind the attacks, but Dumbledore and the Minister at the time refused to let him take Lord Malfoy in for questioning.
When the Dark Lord Voldemort appeared out of nowhere in the seventies, he took over the Knights of Walpurgis as its new leader. The Knights of the early half of the century and before had been proud of their involvement in the organisation, and openly showed their faces during the larger attacks, but under Voldemort they adopted silver masks that hit their identity. Soon enough the nickname "Death Eaters" was applied to them, and by the mid-80s few remembered that they had once been called the Knights.
Moody was instrumental in fighting against this new group of terrorists, and gladly accepted an invitation to the Order of the Phoenix, the organisation Albus Dumbledore started to fight the Death Eaters. Although it cost Moody dearly: a large chunk of his nose was lost in a battle to the death with Voldemort's right-hand man Rosier, and he lost his leg by a dark rotting curse when he took down some of Voldemort's other lieutenants in an attack on a Muggle orphanage. Despite his wounds he refused to back down, and was set to continue fighting even though Britain was losing the war... when a miracle happened, and Voldemort was killed in the Potter country house, having just murdered both adult Potters. After the Death Eaters had been rounded up and thrown in Azkaban Moody finally retired, but not to rest: instead he used his free time to continue hounding the Death Eaters that had bribed their freedom.
And now, just over ten years later, he was in Godric's Hollow for the first time, with an Auror, officially to track down two school skipping teens. Unofficially he knew they were after Harry Potter, who had for some reason left Hogwarts unauthorised. They passed a stunned old man near the war memorial, and as Moody stepped on following the information Dumbledore had given him, he paid no notice to Dawlish reviving, and then obliviating the Muggle.
They came up to the Potter country house, and now he was holding his wand on what could only be Harry Potter and a friend. Moody was unhappy with this, but Dumbledore was the leader of the Order of the Phoenix, and he had not steered them wrong before, even if Moody felt that the amnesty for Severus Snape was not what he would have done, and would have liked harsher punishment for the captured Death Eaters.
"Found you at last. Now hand over your wands, and nobody needs to get hurt," he growled at the canoodling duo, his wand trained at them.
"Dawlish, disarm them. I need to tell Dumbledore we've found our runaways." Moody waited until the tough-looking grey-haired wizard stepped into the room, then went out to cast his patronus message for Dumbledore.
–-
Harry instinctively went for his wand as his first kiss was so rudely interrupted, but Hermione's hand on his stayed his response.
"Harry, you can't cast another spell so soon after Finite... it nearly drained my magical core yesterday, that's why I was in the Hospital Wing with you. Just do what he says for now, please?" Hermione's big brown eyes pleaded at him, and Harry reluctantly dropped his wand on the ruined coffee table in front of the sofa. Hermione placed hers.
"Okay, we'll cooperate," Harry said. "How did you find us?"
"Tracking charms boy, all Hogwarts students carry them. We would also have picked up the stunner you cast on that Muggle outside eventually. If your goal was to hide, you're not doing a good job at it. Right you two, now stay still," the man identified as Dawlish said, stepping closer to them. "Just a quick identification spell." He cast a light blue spell at them both, which washed over Hermione before returning into Dawlish" wand.
"Hermione Jane Granger, mudblood, third-year witch at Hogwarts, correct?"
Hermione grumbled at the word mudblood, and Harry's hand painfully closed around hers as he fought his anger, but she nodded.
Dawlish cast the spell again, this time flooding over Harry. "Harold James Potter, half-blood, Lord of House Potter, Heir of House Black, nominal Lord Gryffindor... what?" Dawlish looked surprised. "What's this then? You can't be Harry Potter! He's a black haired weakling with glasses and a prominent scar! Don't you two move an inch, I need to check this with Mad-eye."
Dawlish turned around and stepped out the door. Harry grabbed for their wands, and pulled Hermione up.
"Hermione, quickly, focus on some place safe. Not Hogwarts!" Harry hugged Hermione close, wrapping his arms around her.
"Harry, what is this? Why are they after us? What did he mean Lord Gryffindor? What are –"
Harry kissed her on the mouth, then quickly let go again. "Some place safe Hermione. Please."
Hermione focused, and thought of her parents' dentist practice in Crawley. Just as Dawlish and Moody stepped back in, a smoke-like effect engulfed the two teens, and rushed out past the two men, disappearing into thin air.
"Dawlish you imbecile! How could you not disarm them at least if you had to leave them unsupervised!" Moody cursed at his former colleague, staring at the empty room.
"How the devil a thirteen-year old child figured out Fumation is beyond me," he muttered, and began casting a spell. "Just as I thought, useless. If he had apparated we'd at least have a trace of sorts. Right, no sense staying here then," Moody pocketed his wand, and cursed inaudibly once more.
"Mad-eye, what's going on here? Was that really Harry Potter? He doesn't look a thing like the pictures in the Prophet," Dawlish was still confused. He thought they were there just to pick up two Hogwarts runaways, and when they found a red-haired kid kissing his girlfriend he thought no further of the location. It wouldn't be the first time some teenagers or a drunk wizard stumbled into the heritage site, and with magic any damage could easily be repaired.
"Listen up John, you just forget about the whole deal. I'll handle the rest. Go back to taking bribes from Malfoy and rescuing cats from trees, or whatever you useless lot do the these days since I've left," Moody glared at him, and apparated away. Dawlish blustered at the insult, then turned on the spot and apparated away as well.
–-
Harry and Hermione literally appeared out of thin air in a dark room. He let go of his friend, and she shot off somewhere. Lights popped on, and he looked around and saw they were in what appeared to be a waiting room at a doctor's office or some place similar.
"Of course, it's Saturday, the office is closed," Hermione was talking to herself, as she walked back to Harry. "All right mister, now talk. What is going on? How did you get us here? Why are we running? What did – oh! That bastard! And... and he!"
Harry looked on with a little concern, as his brunette friend was raging and stomping around. "Hermione, please calm down. What's got you so upset?"
"He – he – Ron!" Hermione looked furious, and Harry instinctively backed away some until his legs bumped against the row of chairs. He was feeling somewhat drained, so he took the opportunity to sit.
"Oh, right," Harry frowned, remembering he had caught Ron the previous year in an attempt to molest – if not worse – her.
"Hermione, please calm down. We're safe now, and I'll never let him do anything to you again. I stopped him then, and will stop him again should he try something else."
Hermione stopped raging, and took a second to find her calm again. "All right Harry. Oh! The tracking charms! Hold still." She took out her wand, and prepared to cast a spell at him. Harry shot up like a bullet, and grabbed the other end.
"Hermione, no! We're in a Muggle area, and you're under-age! Do you want the Ministry to find us right away?"
The witch paled, she had forgotten about the Reasonable Restriction on Under Age Magic for a moment. "But... how else can we get rid of the tracking charms?"
"Let me think," Harry sat back down. "Right, got it. They can only be cast on non-living non-magical things, according to The Standard Book of Spells for this year. So we both need to get rid of anything we're carrying, quickly."
Hermione padded her pockets, finding them empty. She frowned, realising all her possessions were still in her Hogwarts dorm room. Harry padded himself, finding that other than the sleeve jacket he had been keeping his wand in, his pyjamas held no pockets at all.
"I've got nothing on me Harry," Hermione stated.
"Well... that's not quite true," Harry said after a minute of silence, and blushed. "It's got to be our clothes," he added.
"Harry James Potter, if you think for a second I am going to undress in your presence, you –" Hermione was working her way up to a rant, so Harry quickly rushed up and hugged her. This helped calm her down rapidly.
"Hush "Mione, that's not what I was thinking. Tell me, where are we exactly?"
"This is my parent's practice, in Crawley. But they're closed today. I forgot, you kind of forced me to pick something quickly. And you still haven't told me exactly how we got here, mister." Hermione shot a grin at him for that last part.
"Your parents? They're doctors?"
"Dentists, actually. And I don't see why that matters."
Harry thought of the one time he had gone to the dentist. During a round of Harry Hunting Pierce Polkiss had kicked him in the mouth, and Harry's front tooth had cracked. Seeing the smaller boy lying on the floor bleeding the bullies had run. A teacher came up and found Harry bleeding, and for once did his duty, and helped Harry to the school doctor. The doctor called a dentist nearby, and Harry had been whisked off to get his tooth repaired. Of course when he came home later that night the Dursleys were not happy, and he gotten the belt from his uncle.
"Do your parents have scrubs or another kind of protective clothing?"
"Yes of course, through there – oh!" Hermione caught up on his plan. "That will work. It will look weird, but it should get us to mummy and daddy." She pulled Harry up, and guided him into the dentist office itself.
"I've helped out mummy and daddy in the summer, so I know where they keep everything. Right... here." Hermione opened a closet, and found several scrubs. "Harry, you go back to the waiting room and put on these," she handed him a blue one, "I'll dress in here. Don't you dare come back in before I call you!"
"I won't, I promise," Harry took the protective clothing. "Erm..."
"What is it now Harry?" Hermione sighed.
"They're a little big."
"Honestly Harry, what did you expect? We're not in a clothing store. These will just have to make do for now. Now scoot!"
"All right, I'm going!" Harry walked to the door, then turned around again. "Underwear as well "Mione, they might have put the trackers there."
"Oh! You..." Hermione's rant was cut off by Harry pulling the door closed. He quickly stripped, and stepped into the scrubs. With it being designed for an adult male, it fully covered his arms and legs, flowing over the floor.
"At least nobody will notice I'm not wearing pants, or shoes for that matter," he remarked to himself, and bunched up the pyjamas he'd been wearing previously.
A few minutes later Hermione stepped out, hidden in another one, and blushing heavily as she was holding her clothes in her arms. Harry noticed a bra peeking out, and when Hermione saw where he was looking, she got an angry look.
"Pervert. Don't you dare try to get a peek, or you're not my boyfriend any longer," she chastised him.
"I wasn't trying," Harry feebly protested, then saw Hermione grin, and realised she was at least partially kidding.
"Okay, we should get out of here, and dump our clothes. Hermione, can we go to your parents'?"
Hermione looked pensive for a moment, "they should be home, and it's only a twenty minute walk or so. We look ridiculous, but hopefully nobody will say anything. Oh... but I'm afraid daddy will not take it well if I show up... well... just about naked, with a boy..."
Harry's face bunched up in thought, then a smile lit his face as he remembered something from his early childhood. "Watch this Hermione."
Before the eyes of his amazed friend, Harry's features began to change. His newly reddish hair grew out until it was shoulder length, and the lines of his face softened until he looked female. And judging by the two small bumps which appeared on the scrubs, his face was not the only part of his body he could change.
"Amazing... how? You didn't take any polyjuice," Hermione was transfixed by her friend, and looked like she wanted nothing but to inspect him fully.
"I used to – cough – I used do be able to do this as a young child, before Dumbledore blocked my magic," Harry replied. Even his voice sounded female now. "This... this is what my mum sort of looked like, I think."
"She was beautiful Harry," Hermione replied, then blushed, as she hadn't intended to imply Harry was beautiful. Even if part of her thought he was, in any form. "Any way. Let's go. I'll take the spare key so I can lock up behind us. We can drop off our clothes on the way there."
"And your shoes," Harry pointed out. Grumbling, Hermione took off her shoes, and placed them on the clothing pile.
"When we get to my home, you'd better have some explanations mister... or should I say miss?"
"I'm still me, "Mione," Harry answered. It felt weird being in another body, and he was happy he had taken polyjuice the previous year, so he was at least somewhat prepared for it. He would not admit it to his friend yet, but he felt extremely tired. The overpowered "Finite" he had cast on her had taken a lot out of him, and then the whisking away to Crawley and on top of that morphing into and maintaining another form... he felt as drained as he had been after the fight with Quirrelmort, or the Basilisk.
–-
Alastor Moody apparated to Hogsmeade, and stepped into the Hog's Head Inn. He shot a quick greeting to its publican Abe, and went into a back room where Abe's brother Albus was waiting.
"He's a quick lad Albus, gave me and John the slip back there."
"Most troubling my friend. Would you allow me to see your memories of it?" Dumbledore stroked his beard.
"I'll trust ye this once Albus. Don't try to go anywhere else in my mind though, or ye'll regret it." Moody dropped his occlumency shields, and Albus' twinkling eyes bore into his. Moody felt the memories of Godric's Hollow rush to the forefront of his mind, then Dumbledore looked away and Moody slammed his shields up again.
"Fumation, again. So it must not be a fluke," Dumbledore mumbled. "Thank you Alastor, you can go now."
"Hold of there Albus. What in the name of Morgana's Tits is going on here? You call me and tell me that Harry Potter has been kidnapped, and needs to be found urgently. I track him down with your help and find a couple of teens kissing in the Potter memorial home, and before I can do anything else the boy grabs the girl and they disappear.
"If it weren't for John's identification spell, I'd not believe the boy to be Potter at all, he looks drastically different. Why are they running in the first place?"
Moody saw Albus finger his wand, and whipped his own out. "That'd better be due to nerves Albus, or am I to believe you were about to try to bespell me?"
"Forgive an old man his mistakes," Dumbledore genially smiled. "I don't have all the answers yet my friend, but I fear Harry is in grave danger and needs to be back at Hogwarts as soon as possible. Will you join me back to my office, so we can try to refocus the tracking charms?"
Moody stared down Dumbledore, then relaxed and nodded. "All right Albus. I trust you to do what is best."
The two men went for Abe's floo, and headed off to Dumbledore's office by the quick route.
–-
The two scrub-clad girls attracted some weird looks as they walked through the streets of Crawley, but nobody stopped them and around twenty minutes later they arrived at Hermione's home. They had thrown their clothes in a garbage bin they passed, when they saw a garbage truck coming to empty it at the other end of the street. At the least this would make sure their clothes would end up on a garbage heap, and at best they'd be incinerated, hopefully disspelling any tracking charms remaining. Their wands of course they kept, hidden in the oversized sleeves.
"Harry, what should I say?" Hermione hesitated before knocking, "they're bound to wonder why I'm here dressed like this, and who you are."
"Just get us inside "Mione, and calm down. I'll do the rest." Harry tried to smile assuringly. The truth was he had no real plan, other than running away from Dumbledore before he could be obliviated and magically bound again.
Hermione ringed the bell, and they heard movement inside. A moment later the door was opened by an older copy of Hermione, but with bright blue eyes framing the face covered by untameable brown hair.
"Yes, can I help– Hermione? What are you doing here, dressed like that?"
"Hi mum," Hermione smiled. "Can we come in, please?"
"Of course, of course..." her mother stepped aside to let them enter. "Hermione, what on earth are you wearing? Did you break into the office? Why aren't you at school? Who's she – hello dear, Emma Granger, nice to meet you –" she quickly cut an aside to Harry, then rounded back on her daughter, "where are your clothes? You weren't expelled were you? Oh dear, is it something magical? Should I call that teacher of yours, Mrs McGonagall?"
Harry looked on amazed, apparently his friend got her one-thousand-questions-a-minute from her mother, but at that last bit he had to stop her. "No! Don't call McGonagall or anyone else, please!"
That stopped Emma Granger from interrogating her daughter, and she visibly took a moment to calm down. "Well, I think we'd best take a seat in the living room then. Hermione Jane, I hope you have a good explanation for all this."
"Yes mummy. Where's dad?"
"Your father is at the shooting range dear, it is a Saturday," Emma replied. "Well then, isn't this pleasant." Harry could not tell if she was being sarcastic or not. "You're the first friend my daughter has ever taken home. What did you saw your name was dear?"
"Harry," he answered. How to best approach every thing now, he thought.
"Harry? Is that short for Harriet?"
"No, just Harry. Erm, Mrs Granger, will you promise not to freak out?"
Emma Granger's eyes narrowed briefly. "This is something magical isn't it. Okay dear, do your worst."
Harry took a deep breath, and willed himself to return to his natural form. His hair shortened again, and the feminine features slowly changed into his normal male ones. Hermione and her mother looked on in amazement, until Harry was once again a rather well-built thirteen-year old auburn headed boy.
"Mrs Granger? My name is Harry Potter, and I–" Hermione kicked his leg, "–we need your help. You see, we–"
Harry suddenly slumped forward, and would have cracked his head on the coffee table had Hermione not grabbed onto him, and lowered his head on her lap. Magical exhaustion had suddenly, finally caught up with him.