Chapter 37 Eye Healer in a Muggle Town
The Aurors were pressed work till Saturday during the Easter holidays. They released the curses cast on the smuggled broomsticks, and sent them back to the confirmed makers in cooperation with staff from the Department of Broom Control office, including Percy Weasley. Unconfirmed ones, most of them were presumed as Asian makers, were stored in the Auror Headquarters as confiscated evidence.
They celebrated Teddy's first birthday on Easter Sunday in April. One of impressive memories for Harry was the time when Mrs Weasley hugged Andromeda saying the words that she had hesitated to do many times before,
"Forgive me for your elder sister, I…" she broke off, glanced back at her only daughter she protected from Bellatrix's killing curse, Ginny looked tense.
Andromeda patted the back of Mrs Weasley and said, "Bella invited her own misfortunes. She asked for her death. I might have known she deserved the way she died since the time when she became a Death Eater."
After lunch they enjoyed an Easter egg hunting for Teddy. Every time the toddler grabbed the chocolate egg and shook it with joy, they repeated, "Awwh, he looks so cute" or "He is damn handsome like Remus." or "Look at his hair, it turned my color!"
Even Narcissa Malfoy let her compliment out in short, "How sweet," and she held him up in her arms.
Harry was grinning at them happily. Then he felt someone stare at him. He noticed it was Ginny, whose eyes were filled with lots of emotion. When he took a step closer, she walked away at a quick pace. He followed after her, but he was blocked. George whispered Harry, "See if he deserves his title," and he smirked at Malfoy.
Malfoy had been sneering at Ron who was taking on a job, eating chocolates which started melting after Teddy's egg hunting. He had been keeping a distance from the spot where Ron and Hermione were sitting by the hearth. "What did you do to him?" asked Harry, amused.
George showed him a box of Pucking Pastilles which made the eater vomit.
Hermione approached them and admonished George, "You should stop playing a prank on him. He works for the Auror Headquarters now."
"Owing to Snape, Malfoy gained his position. I'm testing whether he really deserves it or not."
"You call that a test?" she shook her head.
As George announced, Malfoy turned pale suddenly and dashed to the bathroom upstairs. Harry tried to follow him, but George stopped him.
In ten minutes or so, Malfoy came back, straightening up his collar of his black shirt with a flask of potion in his hand.
George whistled, "I didn't expect this. He passed the test."
Dudley Dursley was shocked when Agneta stared at him with her curled lashes told him she didn't think she had been going out with him, she said in her Nordic accent,
"I don't like your flabby muscles. You need to shape up, take care," and she stood up and left.
He was sitting alone for a while. She was the first girl he fancied. She seemed to have gazed at him with great interest when his old best mate, Piers Polkiss informed her he had been the Junior Inter-school Boxing Champion of the South East, he couldn't believe she had just dumped him, turned his gaze out of the window.
He blinked and rubbed his eyes. He caught a very familiar profile with spectacles among the crowd. He stood up, paid a bill and he went out of the coffee shop, followed the jet-black head of his only cousin in the din and bustle of a town when the dusk gathered around Camden Town Sunday afternoon. His cousin was with his companions, a red-haired man and a bushy brown-haired girl. He edged through the crowd in the narrow street, blinked his eyes again. He lost them. All he could do was just hanging around the spot where they vanished.
The Fidelius Charm, Harry had experienced this charm the second time. The ancient magic made him feel weird always.
Hermione cleared her throat and said brightly, "Well, here we arrived finally. We're lucky Dr. Higgins treats a patient from our world only on the first Saturday of the month. He usually treats Muggle serious patients on Saturdays. Dr. Higgins?" she called the name.
Harry was startled when the old silver-grey wizard came out from the back room. He resembled a druidic chieftain, Cadwagan. His piercing green bloodshot eyes met Harry's green ones. The eye asked Harry who he was before he shut his mind, he invaded Harry's mind. He found Harry's secret, unregistered Animagus form, a Chough and the fact that he had been one of Voldemort's horcruxes and his mother's death cry…
"Stop it!" Harry bellowed and his magical aura emitted from his body. He hated doing Occlumency in the unexpected situation. He panted hard and went down on his knees.
Hernione crouched down and hugged him from behind and said, "Harry, are you okay?"in her anxious tone."Dr. Higgins, what did you do to him?"
Ron pulled out his wand and pointed it at the old warlock, cautiously.
Higgins held up his hands and said in his hoarse voice, "Forgive me. It's my habit of invading the mind of the young warlock who has green eyes. Please don't worry, young man. I won't tell your secret to anybody. What's your name?" and he sat down on the swivel chair which creaked.
Harry glared at Dr. Higgins, stood up and said reluctantly, "Harry Potter."
Higgins dipped his old large quill in an ink bottle carefully and asked, "And your middle name?" his hand was slightly trembling for his old age.
"James," Harry edged closer to the antique desk, on which druid runic spiral patterns engraved the edge.
"Your age?"
"Eighteen."
"Are you married?"
"Eh, no," Harry felt his life suddenly as meaningless without Ginny.
Higgins threw his glance at Harry and muttered, "Not yet," and wrote down the words, "eighteen, single"on the parchment on which the two magical photos were pasted.
Harry noticed soon they were his parents'. He threw his inquiring look to Hermione, she whispered back to Harry.
"I gave them to him when he asked for. Professor McGonagall allowed me to copy the photos of Head Boys and Head Girls in the past."
"Your short-sightedness was inherited from your father's side obviously," Higgins looked up from the photo of his father with spectacles and said, "But your eyes," he stared at Harry again.
"My mother's," Harry said instantly and wondered how many times he answered the same question, more than twice he counted, most of them who admired his green eyes were dead, Lupin, Snape, Dumbledore, Sirius…but his melancholy reminiscence was broken when Higgins told,
"You don't understand what I say at all," and he let Harry alone come in the consultation room and said, "You inherited your mother's old magic. Your mother's ancestors were druids."
"Why can you say that?" asked Harry, who tried to remember what Snape had told him before.
The old doctor gestured towards the Muggle ophthalmic equipment to inspect the eyes. He urged him to take off his glasses. When Harry removed his spectacles and sat at the equipment, Higgins said what Harry couldn't expect at all.
"Potter is Pure-Blood, and your mother's former name was Evans, right?"
"Yes, sir," answered Harry and he felt the air shot from the front into his eyes.
The eye healer said,"I inherited old magical power from my grandmother. Her last name was Evans. Evans means 'young warrior' in Welsh. Druidic power influenced Wales once upon a time a long ago."
Harry was astonished. He leant off the equipment feeling his blurred vision and asked in expectation,"Do you have your family tree?"
"No, I don't. My parents were both Muggles. My grandmother learned her magic in Ireland. She brought back a druidic healing stone that helped the weak-eyed, which was how my father started his ophthalmological clinic in this Muggle town," Higgins stood up slowly from his seat and turned around to the potions shelf fitted with glass.
When he opened the door of the shelf, a young brunette with her long black hair in plait looked into a room and asked,"Doctor, old Muggle patients are waiting. How long will it take?"
Harry heard Ron say outside of the room,"Blimey, she is Parvati."
"No, she is not," Hermione answered back.
"They are suffering from early glaucoma,"Higgins heaved a deep sigh, and informed her in his hoarse voice,"Ten minutes. Make them herbal tea."
"Yes, Doctor," she went back to the back room.
Higgins crouched down, took out a bottle, the liquid inside was greenish brown, he said, "Which do you prefer, Muggle contact lens or applying eye lotion?"
Harry imagined his wearing contacts every morning. He couldn't put substances in his eyes, he said,"I prefer eye lotion, sir."
"In the morning and before you sleep. Two drops, each eye," he put the greenish brown liquid into a phial and plugged with a syringe cap and handed it to Harry and said, "One Galleon."
Harry took out a gold coin and said,"Doctor, when is your regular holiday?"
"Every Thursday, why?"
"The talk about druidic old magic you mentioned, I would like to know more so," Harry stared at Higgins.
"What did I tell you? I've become terribly forgetful, off you go, my patients are waiting," he waved his hand, and he went back hastily to the back room.
Harry had been standing in dumb in front of the consulting room until Hermione touched his shoulder, she peered into his eyes and said, "Let's go, Harry. You'll have work tomorrow. We should be back to Hogwarts. You will visit here again when you need a refill in your eye lotion phial."
When they were going to do apparition, a stout Muggle man moved towards them slowly. They exchanged significant looks, Ron muttered, "Who is he? I'm afraid we were seen to come out of…"
"You don't have to worry. He can't find Dr. Higgins' clinic for wizards and witches. The Fidelius Charm is broken only when the secret keeper divulges the information to someone. Besides he is a Muggle," whispered back Hermione.
Harry tried to rummage for Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes inside his mole skin pouch, but he stopped. He noticed who he was. "Dudley?"
The fat man lumbered to them and smiled sheepishly and said, "Hi, Harry. I've been thinking of you since you left us last year. Though your staffs of Order told us you're fine, but I couldn't believe you survived."
Harry felt a small pang that he couldn't explain what it was and just smiled back, and remembered their last parting in the village of Little Whinging. And he felt guilty for not making contact with them at all. He opened his mouth, "Hello, Big D. I'm glad to see you again. Where do you live now?"
"Your police settled us in the quiet place near Kew Gardens. Dad works at his drill-making company's branch," Dudley often stuttered glancing at Hermione restlessly.
Harry noticed they had little time to disapparate to the front of the gate of Hogwarts, so he said, "Well, we have so much to catch up, but we must leave soon, so..," Harry stared at Dudley apologetically.
But Dudley kept gazing around Hermione, he showed no sign of breaking off the conversation, he said smirking, "Your girlfriend?"
Ron couldn't hide his irritation, and he whispered to Harry, "Harry, it's time to apparate. Do something."
Harry didn't want to hurt Dudley's feeling remembering the reminiscence of his saying good-bye and his putting a cold tea in front of his room, Dudley showed his affection as his cousin to Harry for the first time at that time since Harry saved him from Dementor's kiss. He decided to let them go first, and said, "Ron, go with Hermione. I'll stay here with Big D," and he saw them off.
Ron and Hermione glanced back to Harry again and again and finally they had gone out of his sight.
"So do you drop by?" Dudley asked Harry abruptly.
"Eh," Harry hesitated to reply.
Though Dudley had changed his attitude to Harry dramatically since Harry saved him three years ago, he couldn't think Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia would behave nicely to him. But he had a responsibility to make sure if they had lived their lives safely, so he answered, "Okay."
They were boarding an underground train that rattled and clattered them towards the outskirts of London. They didn't talk until they changed the train once at Embankment to the district line. When they got off a train, Dudley began to talk in a subdued voice,
"So eh..Harry, do you have a girlfriend?"
Harry hesitated to answer, for he didn't want to tell his cousin about his private life, and said reluctantly, "Yes, I did." And he regretted he confessed almost the truth. Actually, he hurt Ginny's feeling.
Dudley grinned wide, "You broke up with her, didn't you? Me, too."
Harry was going to explain the situation, but he gave up. It was utterly absurd to tell Dudley that Harry was completely screwed.
After they changed a train to the south west, they reached the last station. Harry looked around. Muggles in this town preserved the beautiful natural scenery. He noticed a forest abounding in trees and he astonished, for he felt the magical ward instantly. He wondered if the Auror had cast permanent protective spells. And he felt a spot of rain on his head.
They walked through the parades of shops adjoining the station. Most of them were closed. It was getting darker and darker, outdoor lamps were lighted one after another. Harry wondered whether Muggles in that town had lived their ordinary lives during his hard hiding time when he was hunting for the rest of Horcruxes with Ron and Hermione, and he breathed in the perfectly clear air feeling free.
Dudley suddenly stopped walking and said, "Here we are."
It started to drizzle, and the drops began to wet the tidily trimmed green hedge. Now it was pissing down.
They dashed to the front door of the house, making the crunching sound of their feet on the gravel, going through the garden path. When they got to the door, Harry saw his aunt's outline through the frosted glass of the door.
She pulled the door open saying, "Diddy, you brought your girlfriend finally? and she broke off and let out, "Who are you?" and she put her hand over her mouth when she realized who he was.
Her large pale eyes looked into his bright green eyes.
"Hullo, Aunt Petunia. We've met in Camden Town. Your Diddy brought me here, so eh, well, I had better leave. I've just wanted to know you all are fine," Harry said and he was going to leave.
But she grabbed his arm, he couldn't believe what he heard next, she said, "Don't go away, come in, Harry," she insisted as if she demanded, and she led them towards the living room, called her husband, "Vernon, Vernon!"
"Harry, have a seat," Dudley nodded towards a salmon pink sofa and they sat together.
Harry had thought they would treat him awful just like the same as before since Vernon emerged from the kitchen, but his uncle showed his respect a little when Dudley drew the information that Harry was a trainee Auror, 'a kind of Scotland Yard'.
Vernon asked him with his great interest if he would guard the Muggle Minister like Kingsley. Harry answered shortly he had already guarded the Minister of Magic, Kingsley, so it would happen for the near future. To his surprise Uncle Vernon told Aunt Petunia to bring a cup of tea. Harry had a warm tea served by his aunt for the first time in his life.
Harry sipped his tea and said, "Thank you," staring at her.
She just nodded and sat back on the salmon pink sofa. An awkward atmosphere prevailed. Uncle Vernon coughed nervously and opened his mouth, "So you have done that Lord Thing? Finished?"
It took a while for Harry to understand Uncle Vernon talked about Tom Riddle, and said, "Yes, I finished."
"Good," then Vernon stood up and said in a loud voice, "Petunia, I have to get up early tomorrow for the important business talk with a Chinese executive from a rare metal company," and he left the living room, lumbered to the staircase.
Harry glanced at his watch Mrs Wealsey gave him and said, "Well, Aunt Petunia, thank you for making tea for me. I also have to leave for tomorrow's work."
Aunt Petunia didn't narrow her eyes, which were looking at Harry intensely and she said, "Work hard and visit us anytime you want," the words hit him so powerfully.
He felt they were his only blood relatives for the very first time in his life without the matter of Voldemort thing.
Harry put down his quill on the sheet of parchment which was the last report about the broomsticks the Auror returned to each company.
Evans means "young warrior" in Welsh. Druidic power influenced Wales once upon a time ago.
Harry ruminated over the words the eye healer, Dr. Higgins told him the other day. He wanted to find Evans family tree. He thought he should consult Hermione about that ,but he reconsidered it for he remembered she would be very busy preparing for the N.E.W.T.s. Somewhere in his mind he heard the voice that told him to ask a daughter of Druid, Dara Cadwagan about the family tree. But he turned down the idea. How could he dare to talk with her in the middle of his regaining Ginny's trust in him? He reckoned Ginny must be sensitive about him seeing Dara. He sighed.
"You're thinking of my sister?" Ron dropped on to the stool opposite him and peered into his eyes.
Harry was surprised. Ron said exactly what he was thinking and said, "Blimey, you mastered Legilimency."
"Nah, I'm a complete git in that area. But I'm good at reading your sigh, mate," Ron grinned.
Harry grinned back, tried to continue finishing up the report, but his quill stopped when he found the item, a rosewood broomstick confiscated in the forbidden forest and lifted his face to Ron, "Have they already returned the rosewood broomstick Hagrid found?"
Ron shrugged and said, "I don't know. If you want to know, check the storeroom inside the Gathering Hall. But why?"
Harry couldn't explain, but his sixth sense told him the rosewood broomstick was the key to solve a chain of cases. He stormed out of the office at a quick pace to the Gathering Hall on the same floor. Ron followed him. In the Gathering Hall they found Seamus and Dean, they were training doing defensive spells. They stopped dueling when Harry shoved the door of the storeroom open. The storeroom was filled with the various wooden smells.
"Harry, are you interested in Asian makers?" Seamus came in the storeroom and asked.
Harry examined each unidentified broomstick in his hands.
"This one is mahogany. It seems to be very expensive," Dean held the hard brown wood and examined it.
"Why don't we use Veritaserum? It's the easiest way to let the hooded wizard tell the truth," Seamus touched the cherry wood broomstick and held it, "It's extremely light. Does it work?" and he handed it to Harry.
The broomstick had a slight reddish color, the smell of an oil-based varnish lingered on. He remembered Andrew, a Gryffindor young Seeker, had the same broomstick and said,
"Do you think I can bring it back home?"
"Go ahead, mate. If they ask, we'll say Great Potter took it back for the vital important investigation," Ron flashed his teeth in a quick grin.
Seamus and Dean chuckled.
"Don't make a fun of me," Harry mimicked frowning and grinned, too. And he shrank it without using his wand and shoved it in his mole-skin pouch.
Seamus whistled, admiring Harry's skillful wandless magic and asked, "I can't do wandless magic, how can you do?"
"Oh, I can't do it all the time. But repeating the daily routine without the wand helps you to do the magic," said Harry and he looked around.
He couldn't find the rosewood broomstick. They must have already sent it back to the maker. He thought he had better ask Percy to check the delivery record later.
After the shower Harry shut himself in his room of the Grimmauld Place to observe the cherry wood broomstick, he guessed the wood wasn't Asian cherry, the color was rather one of American or Canadian black cherry. But a carved seal on the stick was not English, the letters he had never seen before. The weight of the cherry wood was extremely light compared with the hard ebony Firebolt with the metal parts goblin-made. He sat astride a cherry wood broomstick and he was very astonished, the place on which he sat turned into a saddle, which was very comfortable, it was very new, and he remembered Neville always complained he hated riding on a broom for he suffered a sore crotch, Harry would often advise him to put his weight on his both feet into the foot rests.
He was now hovering low riding on the cherry wood broomstick in his room and closed his eyes, and thought deeply about the lost rosewood broomstick Hagrid brought back to his hut once. Hermione witnessed the suspicious wizard in the forbidden forest, who might be Rabastan Lestrange. Why was the man deep inside the forest where dangerous creatures like monster spiders and Centaurs resided? But Voldemort and his followers were not care of being in the forbidden forest during the battle of Hogwarts last year. The wizard Grawp tried to catch, must have been up to something, he could be Rabastan Lestrange, Harry guessed. But what was that for?
Another voice of his mind told him to tell his boss he would do Legilimens upon the culprit, most of Aurors didn't agree with Robards, who prohibited using Veritaseram against the culprits whose reaction was positive, but Harry felt his boss was doing the right thing, from his own experience that Hogwarts professors had let Barty Crouch drink Veritaserum, which seemed a barbarous way to him then even though he had been a brutal murderer, and he remembered how he felt when Snape had often threatened Harry he would use Veritaserum to let Harry tell the truth in his Hogwarts days.
Even he was a criminal the way to let the culprit confess should be more considerate. He thought the Auror should take much time to let the culprits confess the truth from their heart, conscience. As the very last resorts they should choose Legilimency and using Veritaserum, Harry concluded. And he gave a sigh thinking of Legilimency. If the culprit could be superior to him, he would fall into a dangerous situation, his secret, he had been one of Voldemort's hocruxes, the owner of the Elder Wand and his unregistered Animagus form, would be revealed. Or when the Auror could capture the other culprit who was engaged in the smuggling broomsticks, the other culprit was negative against the allergy test, there would be a way, and obviously it was easier. Anyhow, he couldn't avoid training to do Legilimens upon the culprit. He made up his mind to start training with Ron.
Next day Ron persisted in asking Hermione her help to practice Legilimens, he insisted, "I won't hold on more than five minutes. She will do better than me."
"But she is very busy for the N.E.W.T.s. And it was you that told me you would help me with this."
"Her help is a necessary condition to practice Legilimency with you," Ron wouldn't budge.
Harry gave in and said, "Okay, I'll ask her to help me with you before we finish the last lecture of druidic runes this Friday."
Harry visited Percy on the floor of the Department of Broom Control the day before the lecture. The office was neater than that of the Auror Headquarters, where faded posters of the remaining Death Eaters stuck on the wall, and most of the desks were always in a mess with bundles of the report parchments. The files stood in an orderly line on each desk, Harry reflected that he didn't keep his files in order. Percy, becoming aware Harry's entering the office, soon walked with a brisk towards him and said in not a small voice,
"Harry, you don't need to come here expressly, I'll go to the Auror Headquarters if you request,"
Hearing of his name, all witches and wizards in the office fixed their eyes on him. Harry tried to focus on asking about the rosewood broomstick for he felt as if his every move he made was watched all the time,
"Percy, do you remember the rosewood broomstick I sent before the Easter Holidays?"
"Oh, yeah. The reddish to black striping one?" Percy answered instantly.
Harry was held him in awe for Percy's accurate memory, and he thought Percy was surely the son of Arthur Weasley who could change any Muggle equipment into the magical one.
"Yes, did you send it back to the makers?"
"We could identify the maker, so we sent it back to them. Did you know that was the "Viktor Krum's Model" the Bulgarian broom maker produced this spring, Harry?"
"No, I didn't. Can we contact them?"
"I think so. Wait a sec. Poppy, needs the file of the identified broomsticks I ordered you to send back the other day!" Percy called the red headed witch.
Harry got a start, when the red headed witch jumped up from her seat and grabbed the file and came to him, Merlin how many times he felt that way when he encountered the red headed witch, of course Ginny was the most beautiful among them and he doubted Poppy might be Dara again for he had been cheated by her disguise last fall, but he shook off his question for she couldn't be Dara Cadwagan who was studying at Hogwarts then, and he smiled and said to the red headed witch,
"Thank you, Poppy," and he took the file from her hand and flipped the pages.
Poppy blushed, "Please ask us anything you want to know" she said in a small voice and she went back to her seat.
Percy peered in the file, too, he said, "The name of the company is Alexander Broomsticks, here," he pointed it out on the file.
Harry took a note of the company and gave back the file to Percy, left the office for Hogwarts.
Author's Note: Thanks to marauderfan, I could edit the first half of this chapter. Please leave your feedback below.