Chapter 11: Collections

Harry was slowly reading through the latest Quibbler. His eyes scanned an entertaining article about a Cheshire cat sighting, though the witness was locked up in Mungo's and unable to give a clear interview on anything but scraps of papers slipped out a window.

Ginny was slouched in his outstretched arm, a pad of paper resting on her knee, quill in hand. Harry could smell the lemon drops she was contemplatively sucking as she wrote up her thoughts on the Chudley Cannons' chances in the upcoming season. He could tell she was trying to word it in a way that would spare her Ron's wrath, but it was becoming exceedingly difficult.

When he finished with the Quibbler Ginny had already tossed her pad of paper onto the coffee table where the pairs' bare feet were resting in a tangled heap. Harry closed the magazine, leaned his head against the back of the couch and looked over at the woman he was lucky enough to call his own. Time had taken nothing from her charm, wit, or daring. Though the daring was at times terrifying. Holding a sixth month old James as she competed in a charity Quidditch game that left her with a dislocated shoulder and black eye wasn't easy. Nor was watching her scream down ministry officials over a possibly discriminatory hiring policy, but at the end of the day, on a couch, with her, he was happy.

"You think Lil's okay?" she yawned, nuzzling into his side.

"Our little Gryffindor?" Harry smiled remembering the ecstatic letter, the twenty exclamation points. "I think she's fine." He imagined his red-headed little girl in all the spaces Ginny used to inhabit. The tall backed chairs in the common room's alcoves, atop a broom soaring around the Quidditch pitch whether or not she was allowed to be there. Certainly she would skip down to see Hagrid. Her Hogwarts life was just beginning, while they were opening a new chapter in theirs. The house was quiet. For the last few days they had been truly alone in the house for the first time in 14 years.

"How're the Chudley Cannons?" Harry asked with a smirk. Ginny bashed her head into his arm and groaned.

"That bad?"

"They lost Tempest Faust and picked up some Daisy Delumes. It's a nightmare."

Harry cringed. "Ron is in for another interesting season."

"I wish. At this point there will be nothing but a series of twenty minute games ending in seven person trips to St. Mungo's."

"Is that the official story?"

"I said 'they're changing to prepare for a new season.'"

"Ouch. You really can't sell this can you?"

"It's honestly like selling a blast-ended skrewts. So how's your case going." It was Harry's turn to groan now.

"We have theories."

Ginny raised an eyebrow

"None of the sellers we've found go very far up the food chain." He said disheartened. "But I feel like since we've cut off the supply everything should slow down. If those kid's parents really were the main suppliers to whoever is at the top of this, it can't be long before they all run out. Someone's going to make a false step soon. Get desperate, something. On the other hand we're not even sure the attacks are coming from the same people."

"The Wizard Cops give you anything yet?"

"They've ransacked the house apparently, and we've sent people to South America, and they've sent people to South America."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing" Harry agreed. There was a brief silence as Harry wracked his brain for things he could tell Ginny. It wasn't much. He was just thinking of getting up to get the leftover cake from Molly's weekly get together when a the sound of the front door bursting open reverberated into the living room

Harry shot to his feet, wand at the ready before his godson could yell "Harry we have about five minutes before they realize the potion doesn't work on me." If Teddy's voice hadn't preceded him, he would have been stunned as he burst into the living room. Harry, despite knowing that few people, and usually only family, even knew where the he lived did not like taking chances, did not like being surprised. His arm was out protectively to cover Ginny who was standing with her own wand at the ready looking exasperatedly at her husband's outstretched arm.

Harry's eyes scanned every entry and exit into the room.

"Ted? What's going on?" Ginny asked kindly, but urgently. The boy was out of breath, not from running but from fear. His ashen face and sandy blond hair gave him away. Harry dropped his wand and reached out for his godson grasping his shoulder.

"Five minutes until what?" Harry asked flicking his eyes around for any clues. None of his Mad-eye Moody-esque dark wizard detectors were going off, Teddy hadn't been immediately followed.

"The, the." Ted took a nervous moment to spit out his admission. "A suppliers' flunky. Apparently they didn't want paid in galleons." Ted breathed out trying to read something in his godfather's green eyes. Teddy looked calmer, like half his fear was simply from admitting this one fact.

Harry's mind scattered in worry and anger, but readjusted with an auror's instinct. "Where are they?"

"Outside, I lead them here, I'm so sor-"

"How many." Harry cut in.

"Three. At least three, unless they called in others. I was sent to kill you." Harry calculated for a split second, took a tighter hold of Ted's shoulder and maneuvered him into Ginny. "Ginny take him outside, apparate somewhere safe." He paused then added. "Not the burrow."

"-but" Ted interjected, annoyed. Harry could see in his eyes that he wanted to join the fight.

Before he had the chance to scold him Ginny jumped in. "Edward Remus Lupin! Go to the backyard and disaparate." She spun him around herself and pushed him in the direction of the backyard.

"Ginny, go with him."

"Harry."

"Go." And before she could argue he turned toward the front door, Ginny on his heels, and Ted on hers.

"If it's three we'll have better odds." Ted said stubbornly, and Ginny looked ready to agree as she took up her position on the left side of the door. Harry glared and then angrily motioned for Teddy to leave, but he only crouched against the wall behind his godfather and waited for directions.

"Ted, you have already gone against several of my rules, you feel like ignoring me again?" He could feel Ted steal himself as Harry checked the front lawn for Ted's followers.

"Ginny." Harry whispered across the door. None of his dangerous wizard detectors were going off. He looked around her to the old sneakscope on the coffee table. Ginny nodded in reply. "Muggle the house." They said in tandem.

Ginny shot off the wall and Harry matched her. Together they shot several magic concealing spells into the air. Family pictures froze and transformed into neat boat scenes. sneakscopes became stamps, he and Ginny shot broad sweeping disguising charms. Ginny bolted up the stairs to the children's rooms. They'll find this place, but all they'll find are muggles. Harry decided if they were coming to the house anyway they should try to be incognito. His house should be a secret, if there was conclusive proof about his location they would have to move, and he very much didn't want that.

He turned to a confused looking Ted. "Disguise yourself." He directed before transforming a family picture over the fireplace into a flat-screen T.V. playing game show reruns. "When they get here say you were here for a moment then disappeared again; act ignorant. Deny, and if they so much as look like they know what's going on, get out! Ginny and I'll handle it. Do you understand?" This had worked exactly twice in his and Ginny's past. He was banking on a lucky third, and if Ted was insistent on sticking around he would at least be helpful.

"Do you understand?"

Teddy looked momentarily bewildered. "Yes. . .Where will you be?"

"I'll be the recliner." Harry replied walking into the living room where Ginny had already turned herself into a funny looking standing lamp with sloppy red tassels. Harry assumed it was the best imitation of a lamp she could get from her brief interactions with muggles. Ted stared for a moment then several pops were heard from the front lawn. Harry gave Ted a serious look. Ted nodded then slowly his face began to change into that of an older man. Aging, one of his mother's favorite disguises.

"Hide you wand, you're a muggle now." Harry reminded. Ted ripped off his cloak, transformed it into blanket then stashed his wand deep in his shirt-sleeve. Harry dashed into the living room and with a wave of his wand and some groaning he turned into a new black-leather recliner.

Ted finished transforming himself and walked into the living room. He sat down tentatively on his godparent's couch and waited. It was only a second before the front door was blasted off its hinges.

"Lupin, we're here for the bodies!" Someone yelled. Ted took a steadying breath, made certain his form was holding then slowly got to his feet.

"What is happening today? An old man tries to sit down for some telephoning making and people keep blasting his door down." He mumbled to himself as in character as possible as he wandered out of the living room and into the main hall. Before he could glance around three wands were in his face.

"Where are the Potters?"

"The who?" He asked feigning deafness by asking loudly. The three dealers he had run away from six minutes ago pointed wands into his face. The red-headed woman in the middle gleamed a nasty black toothy smile. The remaining two groaned as Ted continued. "Well if you're with the boy who came storming through a few minutes ago, he's left through the back."

"Really old man?" The woman asked. Ted shrugged his shoulders and toddled around to head back into the livingroom. "Look around if you like, whatever suits you."

"Do it," The woman snapped and the men on either side skittered off to probably destroy the Potter's house in search of them. "Stay." She then demanded of Ted, her wand still pointing at him. Ted turned back around acting exasperated.

From where Harry was positioned he could just make out half of his godson. He was doing well so far, but he wasn't sure how long it would last. Above him he could hear bedroom doors being torn open and mattresses being flipped. He and Ginny were excellent at concealing charms, transfiguring. Pictures and notebooks with their kids names on them would surely be changed, but it didn't stop the fear from trickling in Harry's blood. This was a distinctly profound ransacking.

The pair finished looking around the house. They had poked and prodded Harry, and kicked over Ginny, but brilliant they were not, and they headed back to their boss without any clue that a Potters had ever stepped foot into the house. There was an angry scream followed by something Harry hadn't expected.

"Avada Kadavra!" Harry transformed and burst into the hallway before he could realize that Ted had been expecting it. He deflected the spell into their freshly pained white walls leaving a long black streak down the side. The surprise deflection of the spell had caught the woman off her guard and Ted momentarily had the upper hand, but only briefly. As Harry shot his first spell at leader she and one of her cronies both sent spells at Ted. The second hit its mark and Ted was slammed backward into the wall, a blistering burn spreading across his shoulder.

Ginny skidded around the corner behind him already shooting spells. The leader's eyes grew wide at what she was seeing. Harry suspected she would have torn into the others at their oversight if they hadn't been in such a dire situation. Harry shot a stunning spell, which was blocked with a flick of a wrist. Ted pulled himself off the wall, wand still thankfully in hand. Three to three. The odds were good if the others didn't have friends on the way. Ginny slashed at the air, a combination stun, followed quickly by a stinging hex for their leader. It caught her leg and she hissed skipping into the wall. Ted attempted a disarming spell that was deflected.

"Go tell Gene to send more people. We have the Potters." The third member of the group turned to dash out the backdoor. Harry threw a spell to lock the doors and sent the kitchen dishes wild to make the path to the door a minefield. As the man skidded to a halt Ginny stunned him remorselessly. The second man was aiming spells furiously in every direction. Harry, Ginny, Ted; each one dogged or deflected easily. A disguised picture on the wall cracked sending shards of glass across the already destroyed room. Harry tried another stunning spell as an iceing spell hit him in the side. He barely felt the pain in the rush of adrenaline. Then within an instant a stunning spell ricocheted off a wall sending Teddy hard into the wall as Harry disarmed the leader and Ginny petrified the third member of the group. Before the skinny leader could make a lunge for her wand Harry had her up against the wall an arm on her neck and a wand pointed at her nose.

"Do you know the penalty for the use of an unforgivable?" He seethed. The woman behind his wrath shook with rage, but said nothing. Her blank eyes were colder than the ice currently melting on Harry's side.

"Ginny, how's Ted?" Ginny had slipped over to her godson on the floor, he was unconscious and a bit bruised and bleeding, but alive.

"Fine." She said. "I'm gonna get the Auror's here then get him to Saint Mungo's though."

"Sounds good, dear." Harry complimented. He was using all his might to retain his anger at the woman he had pinned to the wall. It was her voice he heard, her voice that had tried to use the unforgivable curse against his godson. He slammed her against the wall a second time then used a binding curse and let her slip onto the ground her eyes still following his every movement.

All it took was "There are some violent intruders at the Potters" for the place to suddenly be a hotbed for action. The fireplace was alight and those who knew where he lived were popping into the front yard. It took barely a minute for the house to be full of Aurors, and another half hour before eight members of the Magical Defense Department were through the floo, and another ten before Hermione and Ron showed up.

"Dear Merlin." Hermione gasped with a hand over her mouth, as she stepped over the broken pieces of their front door. Harry met them a second later.

"Ginny's taken Teddy to Saint Mungo's, do you think there's any way you can keep this under control while I go check on him?" Harry asked pulling a traveling cloak on. Ron and Hermione's attentions snapped over to him.

"Ted was involved in this?"

Harry couldn't help but give them an exasperated look. "Very much. We're going to have words."

"Oh I'm so sorry. Is he okay?" Hermione asked.

"What'd he do?" Ron asked, briefly looking at the rubble around them.

"Long stor. ." Harry started, then decided to just say it. "He bought some stuff he shouldn't have, and now-" Harry motioned to the floor and burnt walls. "Someone came to collect."

"You'd think they'd take galleons?" Ron mused. Harry grumbled.

"Watch the house?" He asked, as behind him two of his Auror underlings were staring with fascination at a family photo that had turned back to show his three children's smiling faces.

"Whoa cool, so he does actually have a family." He heard one of them whisper to the other before he disapparated.

Saint Mungos was quiet that night, the waiting room almost empty. Harry walked straight up to the wizard behind the main desk thankful that there was no line.

"What can I do for you sir?" He asked attaching some pieces of paper to a clipboard and setting it aside. "Oh, hello Mr. Potter." He said, looking up.

"Hey Walter. Kid named Lupin came in a few minutes ago with Ginny, do you know where he's at." Harry knew Saint Mungos better than he wanted to. He was friendly with a number of the staff and healers. Years of being an Auror meant more than his fair share of visits, and having children like James and Lily didn't help.

"Fourth floor, I believe, but I'm sure you can just go up and ask around, sir." Harry nodded thanks and disappeared up a flight of stairs. Harry reached room 407 and knew his godson was there. A pleasant looking medi-witch exited the room looking a bit bemused and mumbling something about "surprisingly agreeable patients." Harry would have smirked if he weren't so upset and worried. Harry slipped into the room and saw Ted lying on his back, a thick balm on his bare shoulder and bloodshot eyes. Ginny was in a seat next to him looking through an old Profit and quietly bickering with him about something. She looked up when she heard Harry enter and sighed. "He okay."

"Fine." Ted stated with certainly.

"Good." Harry retorted.

"I'm gonna go get tea, you want anything dear." Ginny asked getting up from her seat and setting the profit back onto a side table. Ted shut his eyes nervously.

"Ginny already get on your case?" Harry asked sitting in Ginny's vacated chair and pulling it around so he was looking straight at Ted. Ginny slipped out the door.

"You get why we're upset?" Harry asked his godson.

"I messed up?" Harry waited as Teddy gathered his thoughts. He covered his eyes and groaned a second before finishing. "You're mad because I went behind your back to buy Razorgrass."

Harry could feel anger and worry burning up inside himself. "No, Ted," He paused but couldn't keep it in. "What I'm mad about is you putting yourself in danger, after I explicitly told you not to, you think I asked you to stay away from potion smuggling for my health? No! If I wanted someone on the inside, someone buying from these people, it wouldn't be you. It would be a trained auror"

"I'm-"

"No, you're not, you're in training. In training Ted, and after today I'm not sure you will be even that. Do you understand what you did?"

"So am I out."

"Tomorrow I get to yell at you as your superior, right now I'm yelling at you as your godfather, and as an adult who cares about you. Do you know what you did?"

Teddy's bloodshot eyes betrayed more than a cursed teenager. He was miserable, guilty, disappointed. Harry didn't want to make it worse. He never wanted to make Ted feel like this, but he was so scared, so terrified that anything like this could happen to him.

Not now.

Harry knew he would have to face putting Ted in danger when he joined the aurors, but he had another year to worry about that. Had another year. Now he was staring down at his godson who had barely survived the afternoon, wondering why he had ever let the boy sign on as a junior auror in the first place.

The boy's eyes shut. For a second the pained look faded from his face and Harry couldn't help but ask himself what he was thinking of.

"I saved Lizzy, you know."

"Who?" Harry asked, calmer now that he had taken a few breaths.

"A girl. Lizzy. Goes to Hogwarts." Harry nodded not sure where this was going.

Teddy's eyes flickered open, and they focused on Harry with a seriousness he rarely saw, but that sent a shiver down his spine. It was the boy's father's eyes coming through. Harry could guess what was coming next.

"She's a werewolf. The potion I had brewed for her saved her life. Those three werewolves who died last week? That wasn't a fluke, they were murdered. Someone sold them bad stuff on the black market on purpose. Same person Lizzy's parents were going to buy from." The Intel Harry had was that it was a badly brewed potion, but not a murder. The information hadn't even crossed his desk, it had gone straight to Hermione's department as a potions misbrewing incident.

"Someone owns the whole supply of this stuff, they can do whatever they want with it. Brew whatever they want with it." Ted continued looking pointedly at his godfather. "They killed them, and they're gonna get away with it, and we're never gonna get the damned Goodnight potion back."

Harry sighed, not sure he believed him. Ted closed his eyes having not gotten the response he wanted.

"I'll look into it" Harry finally conceded. "Under the understanding that-" Ted made to argue but Harry cut him off. "Under the understanding that you stay out of this for a month." Ted didn't look pleased, and tried to haggle down.

"Two weeks?"

"A month." Harry reiterated.

"Three weeks."

"A month."

"A month minus the two days before the full moon." Ted tried.

"Edward, you are on very thin ice."

Ted cursed and his hair turned slightly red. "You'll look into the murders." He clarified.

"I'll look into the murders."

Ted looked pained when he finally agreed "one month." He closed his eyes again. Ginny came back into the room with two cups of steaming tea.

"Thanks."

"Thank you." Ginny said into his ear as she leaned down to kiss him on the cheek. She took up a seat on Ted's other side and together they waited it out until a man from the auror department tracked them down asking for Harry's help questioning their newest connection to the case.