Chapter 11

What You Must

Harry and Ron both stopped instantly as the silver mist wolf sauntered up to them, Harry's head cocked to the side when it began to speak in a familiar voice. "Harry, I have him. Magical hospital in Paris. Pediatrics. Now."

It took him a moment to register it as Rileigh, his father's old friend, he and Ron stared at each other for a brief second before Ron grabbed his arm. "I am side alonging you, or else you might splinch yourself."

Harry nodded in assent, knowing he was right, and let himself be dragged into the darkness.

They landed shakily on the front walk of a tall stone building. The few muggles that walked past them seemed to not even notice it there, similar to the Leaky Cauldron. Harry pushed the door open and strode into the waiting area coming to a stop at the front desk and slamming his elite special forces auror badge on the counter, Ron followed suit, albeit more politely.

"Harry Potter, British Magical Law Enforcement, Special Forces, elite class badge number 01. I need the pediatric ward." He said hastily.

The young brunette witch looked slightly startled, whether it was due to Harry's demeanor, his overpowering aura or his name, Ron wasn't sure but she nodded her head.

"Level seven, the lifts can take you up. Top floor. You have to have clearance to enter the ward." She stammered.

Harry nodded and swept past her, Ron tried to smile kindly but it came off as a grimace. "Thanks." He grunted as he followed after his oldest friend.

Harry came to the door of the locked ward and beat on it. The wood grain shuddering under his fist. The sign rocking a bit, it read first in French and then in English.

Pierre Etienne Chocat Ward

Pediatric General Care Unit

Pediatric Emergency

Pediatric Intensive Care

Head Healer: Rileigh Mandleton

An older witch opened the door, her white hair, flyaway around her face and pulled into a chignon at her neck. Crisp white robes billowing around her.

"Honestly what is this about, I have little ducks a sleeping up here." She chided in her flowing French, glaring at Harry. He looked at her, eyes full of questions.

"I don't speak French." He said in irritation. She huffed and repeated herself in a heavily accented English.

"I am Harry Potter. I was contacted by Healer Rileigh Mandleton." He said briskly.

The older woman's mouth drew into a perfect O and she nodded in understanding. As she ushered them both in. "I zee, you must be wiz zee British MLE. She told me zat she was doing zee contacting oz you. I haz no idea oz what is going on wiz zee poor lad. Zee man, or Fazzer as he says he eez, eez in zee closed family zroom. One oz our own araurs eez guarding zee door, zere haz been an anti appartition jinx placed on zee room."

Harry's mouth pursed as he looked to the doorway with the burly auror she had pointed to.

Erm, I'll take care of that for now, shall I?" Ron said firmly. "You go see Teddy."

Harry nodded before gripping Ron's arm. "Contact Ginny. Get her here. Only her and one other. Get King too." Ron nodded in understanding as he pulled out his credentials and showed them to his French counterpart.

"Now, only family eez suppozed to be in zee childrenz zrooms." She said nervously, glancing at the obviously agitated man as they reached a hall labeled Critical Cases.

Harry's breath caught as he read the sign overhead. "I am his father. His name is Theodore Remus Potter-Lupin and I am his father. He was kidnapped more than a month ago." He replied, watching the woman's face go ashen. "Rileigh is an old family friend and she contacted me tonight, saying she had him."

"You are zertain zat zis eez your boy?" she barely whispered.

"Rileigh would have recognized him anywhere. I am sure of it." He replied stiffly as she pushed open the door.

Harry walked in, allowing the nurse to follow him. Rileigh was perched on the edge of the bed, holding an emaciated little boy in her arms, tears on her face. He stumbled closer, looking at the sunken cheeks and damp, stringy curls. His lips were colorless and he had dark rings under his eyes. Harry thought he might pass out looking at the state of his son.

"Oh Merlin Teddy." He mumbled, reaching a hand out to touch him.

When his fingers made contact with the clammy skin, Teddy's eyes flew open. They seemed too big on his sickly face. Harry watched as the gray eyes widened as he realized who he was looking at. Without waiting for permission Harry pulled his son from the healer's arms, gripping him to his chest. He felt every bit of the burning leave his body and felt Teddy relax against him. He sat onto the stuffed armchair, rocking gently, his own tears pouring into the already sticky hair.

"I thought I would never find you." He muttered, littering Teddy's face with kisses. "Oh Godric, please, please just be alright." He said into Teddy's hair.

"It doesn't hurt now daddy, you made it go away." Teddy said in a week voice before curling completely into Harry's lap and falling into a dreamless sleep.

0o0o0o0o

Harry gently placed the still sleeping Teddy in Ginny's arms, wrapping a blanket around them both. He kissed Teddy's head and ran his finger down his wife's cheek, wiping her tears.

"I will be back." He said hoarsely.

"Please don't kill anyone." Ginny said nervously, glancing at the door.

Harry's eyes darkened as he stepped into the hall. "I will consider your request, though I make no promises." He muttered darkly as the door closed. Ginny met Rileigh's eyes, both of them nervous for what was to come.

Harry looked at the Auror standing guard, knowing Ron was within, he silently held out his badge and the door swung open admitting him entrance. He glanced quickly at Ron who stood and began to make his way to him. Harry held out his wand, nonverbally stripping his friend of his wand and stopping him mid stride. Ron's eyes widened as he watched Harry advance towards the man who brought Teddy into the hospital. Harry's eyes fell on the terrified looking man in front of him.

"Harry." Ron tried to plead before he found himself silenced.

Harry had never hexed him before. He knew that this could not be a good thing, especially as when he met the man toe to toe he cast a mufliato charm and a silencing spell on the room.

The man squawked as Harry gripped the fronts of his robes and hoisted him into the air, slamming him against the back wall. His eyes flashed with emerald fire. Ron was glad, not for the first time, that he was on Harry's good side.

"You took my son." He growled. "MY SON!" he then bellowed.

The man named Shane flinched, saying nothing, only letting out a ughph, as Harry slammed him into the wall again, causing his head to bounce off the window frame.

"You will tell me where I can find Evan Yaxley. You will tell the truth, or you will never be able to tell anything ever again." He said in a deathly quiet voice.

Shane spoke in tremors, still a foot from the ground. "He will be at the beach cottage tomorrow at dusk. The location, it is hidden under the Fidelius charm. I-I- can't let you in, but I can lead you to its location."

"Until tomorrow morning then." Harry growled as he sat the man down. "And when this is over, consider me suspended without pay." He said before crushing his fist into the man's jaw, a sickening crunch following.

He let the excuse of a man fall to the floor in a heap. He turned on his heal and stormed from the room, Ron found himself unspelled but unable to move or speak, this time from shock and awe at his friend's actions.

0o0o0o

"I can't believe I have to write out an order of suspension on you. If you wanted the time off you could have asked." Kingsley muttered as they sat crouched on the beach, under disillusion charms waiting for a sign of Yaxley.

Harry said nothing, knowing that he shouldn't have risen to using the man as a punching bag but not finding it within himself to care. Shane had told them that he would likely apparate directly onto the stoop of the cabin, however when he saw that Teddy and he were not there he would emerge to look for them, in the first weeks he would take Teddy out to the shore to get air, before the he became as sick as he had.

It felt like they had been waiting for eons when a ripple in the air alerted them to the former death eater's presence. Harry stiffened, recognizing the man for who he was, he felt Ron shift slightly, altering into a better stance. They waited until he walked closer to where they were lying in wait before Kingsley threw an anti-apparition jinx up, the force of it cracked like thunder and Yaxley immediately drew his wand. Falling into a fighting pose.

Harry, Ron and Kingsley allowed their charms to fall, becoming visible. Yaxley spoke first.

"Ah, Harry. Am I to take it that you found your Godson then?" he said conversationally.

Harry's growl didn't even consist of words.

"You never were good at talking through a problem were you? I have to say, I have waited a very long time for this day."

"You may as will quiet yourself." Kingsley uttered in his low cadence. "There is nowhere to run, you can't apparate and this area is completely surrounded. I have pulled nearly all of the French and British auror squads. Not to mention all of my Elite Special Forces."

The graying man shrugged his shoulders. "Makes no difference to me. I am here to take out Potter and then you can do with me what you will."

"You think that you can defeat him one on one? Let alone with the two of us at his side?" Ron scoffed.

"The two of you are nothing." Yaxley scathed. "I was at the battle, neither of you could defeat the dark lord, and you shan't defeat me either. But Potter, he owes me. I lost many friends in that battle. And it was at his cause. Not to mention the comrades he put in that wretched prison. I will have his life before we leave tonight."

"More powerful wizards than you have tried." Harry said with a grimace, he wand sitting lazily in his hand.

"So you think, oh chosen one. So you think." He said with a grin as Harry stepped closer.

"You took my son." He snarled.

"No, I took your Godson. I did try to get ahold of one of your actual children but alas they are rather difficult to grasp. You seem to protect them better."

Harry let a stream of profanities fall from his mouth. He knew that what he said was untrue, Teddy was just older and had more freedoms than Albus or James. However, he had been torturing himself with that thought for weeks on end. That he hadn't protected Teddy well enough, but Al and James seemed to be just fine. He started when sparks flew from the end of his wand, he was rapidly losing control of not only his temper but his magic as well. Kingsley glanced at him from the corner of his eye. Appraising if he could trust him to fight this battle, before he could make a decision however, their cornered suspect took the matter from his hands, flinging a curse directly at Harry.

He expertly blocked against it, sending the wave of power careening off into the sand, causing it to fly up like a desert storm. Ron was thrown one way, knocked unconscious from the force of the reverberating spell, while Kingsley was tossed in the other, clutching his ribs and gasping for air, leaving Harry standing, stone faced in front of Yaxley.

"I take it the time for talk is done?" he said softly, before Yaxley threw another curse, which Harry blocked, effortlessly. The darkness of the curse reverberated off his shield causing the trees behind them to rustle with the force. Harry stood firm, glaring at the man.

He struck suddenly and without thought, swiping his wand with all the speed born of a seeker. They parried each other blow for blow, Harry threw up rocks and engorged shells to intercept killing curses. It was in one of these moments that Harry saw an opening and sent a reductor curse at his opponent's knees, effectively causing the bone to blast its way through the skin in tiny shards. Yaxley fell to the ground, screaming in pain, his shin bones visible beneath the bloodied skin. Harry disarmed him instantly and walked over, holding his wand pointed at his face.

"You don't have the guts." He sneered through pants of breath.

Harry glared at him, feeling the hatred in his stomach. "Oh I have the guts, you don't scare me in the least." He said, his voice dripping with malice. To Yaxley and Kingsley's astonishment he lifted his boot and slammed it heel first into the older man's face. He knelt down looking at the blood flowing from the broken nose. "However, while I might not be scared of you, my wife is another story, and I'd rather not face her wrath should I kill scum like you." He spat.

He turned when Kingsley shuffled over to him, and mumbled a healing spell, aimed for King's ribs. He felt the large hand pat his shoulder before bending to rope the unconscious prisoner.

"Go enervate your partner." He commanded motioning to Ron. He turned and called back to him just as other aurors began arriving on the scene as the wards were dropped. "You know I am going to have to add four weeks to your two week unpaid suspension for that." Harry nodded as he pulled Ron, who was now awake, to a stand. He looked at Harry and shook his head. "And you are going to have to pay a fine for roughing up a prisoner." The minister sighed, as Yaxley rose on a stretcher into the air.

Harry shrugged, scowling at the lifeless form, "Do what you must." He said, no amount of pity or apology in his voice.