DISCLAIMER THE FIRST: "It is by JKR's writing alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the grace of coffee that thoughts acquire speed, the back acquires strains, the strains become a warning. The warning is that I make no money from this. It is by JKR's writing alone I set my mind in motion."

PITHY STATEMENT RELATING TO THIS CHAPTER: "Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens, we have to keep going back and beginning all over again." André Gide – French writer and anti-colonialist (1869 – 1951)

LAST UPDATED ON: 03-21-2020

CHAPTER TWO – TESTING THE WEB

XxXxX

DIAGON ALLEY, LONDON – AUGUST 21st, 2010 – MORNING

Harry checked his contacts in the mirror of the small compact he always carried now. He hoped he'd be able to learn some way to hide the red of his eyes. Aunt Petunia said that his mother had learned how to enchant items at school. Since his eyes were now very light sensitive, Harry had taken to wearing wrap-around sunglasses which Mary-Jane quipped made him look like a bad Geordi LaForge cosplayer. Hopefully he could get them enchanted to hide the color of his eyes or maybe use a ring so he'd still be covered when he was in the shower or swimming. He'd never liked contacts and his new powers hadn't changed that.

Of course one of his biggest worries Harry had had already been dealt with. Harry hadn't looked forward to being stuck up in Scotland without any internet or phone reception. He'd apologized for having to drop off the radar to both Peter and MJ, but then, a week later, Harry had gotten a surprise package. Peter had sent him a specialized laptop and phone! Harry had Skyped his friend to find that Peter had complained about it casually to Dr. Reed Richards who he had been interning for all summer.

As he listened to Peter explain things, it became apparent to Harry that Reed (it was hard sometimes to think of him as "Dr. Richards" given he was around 23) knew about magic. Peter had had been mystified about the generosity, but to Harry it seemed Reed wanted to test the laptop and phone in the dense magic of Hogwarts. Harry had to grin to himself that Peter had access to a man more interested in science than following rules!

Harry would be testing the phone today. Aunt Petunia had told him about Gringotts (which she'd been to a few times after his parent's death) and Harry felt the lobby would be the best place to try and get a reception. That is, of course, if the phone could connect in Diagon Alley at all. But Harry had faith in Dr. Richards. Regardless of the Negative Zone accident, Reed still was one of the leaders in dimensional fields. For all Harry knew, his phone was going to send the signal through the quantum realm or something.

Harry would also be testing how well he could get around without being recognized. Harry had heard how he was called the Boy-Who-Lived and there was even a book series about all the adventures he had supposedly been doing while growing up. Given his new condition, being mobbed was the last thing he wanted. Fortunately his accident may have helped out on that

The first thing that helped was he had the muscle tone few 14-year-olds had. Harry had also grown quite a lot since June and it didn't look like that would slow down anytime soon. Neither of his parents had been anything resembling tall and so Harry resigned himself to being short. Now he figured he'd get up to about 176 cm or so. Better than the 162 cm he'd been stuck at for the last two years.

Then there was the fact that since he'd been bitten by the spider, Harry had found his hair grew faster. Harry was already starting to have to shave and his hair was long enough to put into a small pony-tail. Luckily from what he'd already seen in the Leaky Cauldron that long hair for wizards was common. Given that his famous scar faded to almost nothing, Harry was confident that no one would recognize him. Of course a little make-up that his aunt got for him helped hide his scar even further.

In fact, beyond Tom asking him if he needed help getting into the alley, most only looked a few seconds longer at his visor-like glasses. Of course, given how close it was to the start of term, Harry figured they were used to seeing Muggleborn and raised coming through.

Harry had merely held up the goblin crystal that squibs like his Aunt Petunia were given by Gringotts to get into the Alley without a wand or needing a Magical to let them in. After tapping in the required code, Harry strolled into Diagon Alley like he knew what he was doing. Luckily his Aunt had a good memory for such things and had given him good directions. Harry had declined the offer to go with the Muggleborns with one Professor Sprout given he'd rather control how many strangers he came in contact with till he had a better handle on his powers or if wizards might have some sense that he was different.

If they did, it was rare given few gave him more than the same passing glance that the patrons in the pub had given him. Although Harry could already start to tell the pure-bloods from the others. They were the ones that would sneer at him. Aunt Petunia had already told him a lot about that. His mom had had to deal with that sort of prejudice her entire magical life and marrying his pure-blood father had made it worse. Mrs. Figg had told him a lot of similar stories, especially since even a squib from a wealthy pure-blood family usually got treated like dirt.

Harry smirked to himself; he was sure by the time he was through with Hogwarts; he'd make a lot of people sneer with some of the changes he was going to try and make!

One good thing about Gringotts was it being the biggest building made it easy to find regardless of whether you had good directions or not. As Harry walked past the guards, he tensed up a bit but again, neither guard did more than the cursory look one would expect from door guards. He made his way towards the shortest line and pulled out his phone. Harry was elated that it connected immediately. Other patrons soon began to stare as he talked briefly with his Aunt. By the time he ended the call, almost everyone in the lobby was muttering to themselves.

Harry only had one person in front of him before a middle-aged, ginger-haired wizard finally came over and breathlessly asked, "Was that a fellytone? I thought they needed wires and eckeltricity?"

Harry blinked at the man, "Excuse me?"

"A fellytone! That's what you were using; I'm almost sure of it! I've seen Muggles use them in red boxes in the streets," the man said with an almost manic air of excitement.

"Uh, sir. First off, they're called telephones and yes, they're powered by electricity. And where have you been? People have been using cellphones for around 15 years at least. Most people don't use standard, landline telephones much anymore," Harry explained as he mentally urged the person in front of him in the queue to get their business done faster."

"Really? I work around Muggles a lot and I hadn't really noticed. How interesting! Does this 'telephone' come with a plug? I collect plugs. Muggles make such interestingly odd things," the wizard said with complete seriousness.

"Next!" the goblin teller yelled.

"That's me; no time for plugs I'm afraid," Harry said as he quickly stepped up to the teller. Harry waited a moment till the plug-loving wizard moved away. "Are all wizards weird like that?" Harry asked.

The goblin shrugged, "He is of the Weasley clan. Most think them a bit odd. Any wizard working with anything to do with Muggles is usually seen as odd in some form or another. Arthur Weasley is almost the stereotype of such. Odd given his eldest son works for us as a curse-breaker and he is almost nothing like the man."

Harry blinked at this, "So you're saying that a guy who works with Muggles is not only surprised by something in use for over a decade but can't even pronounce it properly? What are the rest of them like?"

The goblin smiled nastily with lots of teeth, "Incredibly annoying as I'm sure you will find out soon. Business?"

Harry pulled out his key, "I need to get some money discretely. I'm told my account is an old and cherished one. I'd hate for Gringotts to ruin our relationship by making a scene."

The goblin made a nasty face as he took the key, but his eyes went wide before the sneer morphed into a neutral look. "Ah, yes; I see. Well then, Griphook!" the goblin called out. Another goblin ran up from a line of them sitting on a bench against the wall. "Take this client to his vault...discretely."

Harry gave the goblin a thumbs-up which was promptly ignored.

OoOoO

Harry ate his lunch slowly in the rather seedy place in Knockturn Alley. For all its appearance, the food was as good as the two wizards he had been behind in line in the bookstore had raved about. Of course he had been stopped no less than five times as he made his way to the colorfully named Behind the Cyclops Eye pub. Even the barkeep had tried to warn him off. Little did any of them know that Harry's 'danger sense' would alert him to trouble.

While he didn't want to find out, Harry was pretty sure his finger talons would get him out of any trouble he ended up in. Still, he did take a page out of the lessons he'd learned playing D&D at the Surrey library; his back was to the wall and he had a clear line to an exit. So while a lot of the patrons still would turn and stare at the "queer Muggleborn" when they thought he wasn't looking, Harry just ate in silence as he mulled what he'd seen and learned today.

In the course of getting his gold, his school supplies, his wand along with a post owl he'd named Hedwig, he was coming to dread the upcoming school year. One would think finding you had the brother wand to the maniac who had killed his parents would worry him more, but it just didn't register. While he didn't have the smarts that Peter had, Harry liked to think he had the brains to do some good work in computers. His math scores were good and his art teacher felt he could make it as a draftsman.

Because of this, Harry had thought about going into engineering. He figured between his art and computer skills; he'd kill it at CAD work. Mary-Jane had teased him about being exposed to the Grunnings assembly plant at too early of an age. Of course she wanted to be an actress so she didn't think too much of the intellectual grind engineering required. How she put up with him and Peter was something neither boy could understand but were grateful for.

Now all of that was in jeopardy because of Hogwarts. Bad enough he was going to have trouble keeping up with his normal course work, but he'd just lag farther behind in technology as the months went by. Even if he dropped out to do self-study or use tutors after his OWLs, Harry knew it would be hard to get a jump back into what was cutting edge. Magic was awesome, but right now it seemed the price for learning it was steep.

Harry was already dreading if he was actually forced to use a quill. Luckily, he'd learned how to use a calligraphy pen as part of his art classes. Still the primitive nature of the Magical world weighed on his mind. While others might see magical torches that never went out as neat, Harry saw it and so many other examples of Magicals refusing to change.

Of course magic probably played hob with how the Magical economy worked. Harry figured that perhaps things changed so slowly due to the low population and the fact that there really wasn't much need for mass production and thus industrialization. Still, Harry couldn't figure out why anyone would want to use a quill and inkpot when getting modern pens should be a snap.

His brush with Arthur Weasley hadn't filled him with confidence. Harry had to wonder what the man did that he worked with normal people but hadn't twigged to the fact that people walking around talking into a small device was the same as the land-line phones found in phone booths.

Still, the magical world did solve one of the problems regarding his new powers. Harry had found he could climb on almost anything to include even metal. The problem was while he could cut slits in gloves for his hand talons, the same couldn't be said about his shoes. Luckily, he'd found a cobbler tucked away in a shady alley who barely blinked when he had to show him what he needed. Harry wasn't sure what an animagus was or why he was too young to be trying to become one, but if it kept the cobbler from thinking it wasn't that out of the ordinary, he was all for it. Harry had made a point to find a book about them while he was getting his textbooks. If there was some accepted magical way to explain away his powers, he'd take it!

Harry wiggled his toes in his new shoes. While the cobbler had harrumphed about having to make them look enough like Muggle shoes to go unnoticed, the little house-elf creature seemed overjoyed at having a challenge. While the little being had been a shock, Harry was even more shocked that he was able to pick the completed shoes up in only an hour. Again Harry had to wonder how the Magical economy worked. Given the little time the shoes had taken to get made, Harry wondered what the cobbler did most of the day? On the other hand, Harry hadn't gotten most of the charms put on the shoes that he figured most wizards did. He felt he had time to get those later on. He wanted to test these out first before spending more gold.

Harry's spider-sense tingled a bit as a group of wizards came in. Or he thought they were all wizards. One of them might be a woman, but it was hard to tell given the person was, being charitable, ugly as sin as was one of the wizards who had to be related given his awful looks.

Harry watched as they ordered drinks and then went to sit down. There they hunched over and talked in low tones. Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes. These people couldn't project "We're up to something!" more if they tried. Still, the rest of the pub seemed content to pretend they didn't exist. Of course that seemed to be par for the course in Knockturn Alley from what Harry had seen.

Harry went back to eating and leafing through a book about arithmancy. One of the reasons Harry had gotten Hedwig was he figured he'd need to send mail to Magicals at some point. It turned out to be sooner than he expected. Looking at the textbook, Harry wanted to ask if he could test into the class now and not wait till his Third Year. Harry knew he would be behind in magical theory, but he figured with all the gold he had access to, someone would be willing to tutor him. He suspected that Runes might be similar. Harry hoped he could swing it given if he started now, he could take his OWLs in Third Year and NEWTs in those subjects in his Fifth Year. That way if he dropped out of Hogwarts after that, he'd at least have two subjects scratched off the list of self-study and tutoring.

Harry's spider sense tingled lightly again. He looked up to find one of the ugly ones looking at him intently. Harry could tell now that it was indeed a woman. She nudged the other ugly wizard who Harry suspected was her fraternal twin given his looks and almost identical body size. The wizard looked at Harry for a moment before turning to the witch and shaking his head. This didn't seem to please the witch and the two argued for a moment before the wizard turned away to talk to one of the wizards who looked like he had gorilla in his ancestry.

Harry wondered if the witch had recognized him. Aunt Petunia always said how much he resembled his dad except for the eyes. While the few photos Harry had borne this out, Harry still felt he had a lot more of his mother's features than people admitted. But, before his eyes got better, Harry thought that with the hair and the glasses, it would be easier just to see James over Lily.

Harry finished his meal and packed up his stuff. He noticed that the witch was still watching him while trying not to look like it and failing. Harry sighed since his spider-sense continued to tingle at a low level. So Harry went up to the barman and asked if the wizard could shrink Hedwig's cage for him. He had Hedwig hop onto his left arm and was gratified that she didn't need to hold onto him hard enough for her talons to be a problem.

With the cage stashed in his bag, Harry went out and turned to his owl, "Okay girl; the pet-store guy said you owls are smart. Do you think you can fly to my home?"

Hedwig blinked before letting out a bark which sounded almost like the owl was saying, "Duh!" With a leap, Hedwig took to the air and was off. Harry wondered how owls got in and out of the Alley given the "sky" was actually a magical dome spelled to look like the current weather. He figured they probably had plenty of little entries for owls all over. Still, Harry had to wonder what the London Audubon Society thought about all these owls just appearing and disappearing around Tottencourt Road all the time.

His spider-sense tingled harder so Harry made his way towards an alleyway he'd seen earlier. He figured he could duck into it and see what was going on. As he turned into the alley, he caught a glimpse of the witch from the pub following him. Harry quickly took stock of the alley and found a place he could stash his bag. He'd just leapt up onto the wall of the alley and hid behind a balcony when the witch came around the corner.

She quickly took out her wand and began to creep slowly into the alleyway. It was obvious she was looking for Harry. She didn't look up, however, so as she got further along, the frown that seemed to be her default look deepened. The witch passed by him and started to mutter to herself. It was obvious to Harry that she was confused given there was a big container blocking the alleyway further up and Harry would have not had the time to squeeze by it before she'd come around the corner.

Finally the witch turned around as if to leave but something caught her eye. Harry's heart sank as the witch went over to where he had stashed his stuff. It seemed Harry was going to have to do something after all. With a flip that seemed to come naturally to him, he landed behind her. "I wouldn't, if I were you." Harry warned.

The witch turned with a yelp, but her face lit up on seeing him, "Well, well, well, the Potter brat at last! Alone in Knockturn Alley. Spend all those years in hiding and before your first day of school you wander into the last place you should be."

Harry just cocked his head to the side, "I think you'll find I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, thank you. Besides, the last time some evil wizard went after me, he ended up dead."

The witch hissed like an angry cat, "How dare you profane the memory of the Dark Lord! You'll die for his fall and the injuries your father and godfather heaped upon House Carrow!"

Even before she began to weave her wand, Harry's spider-sense was already guiding him to leap to the left. Whatever spell the witch cast made short work of a rubbish bin which exploded into fragments.

"Fuck!" Harry couldn't help but exclaim. He hadn't expected this witch to go from stalking directly to murder. An attempted mugging maybe, but murder? He dodged again as another spell shot towards him. The third spell was an area-effect spell that Harry avoided only by flipping up onto the wall.

"What sorcery is this?" the witch screeched, her eyes wide in shock as she took in Harry sticking to the wall and looking down at her.

"The power of science!" Harry couldn't help but yell as he kicked off towards her. He bounced off the other wall and landed close enough to backhand the witch into more rubbish bins. Harry had wanted to hit harder, but he really didn't know his strength limits.

Unfortunately Harry hadn't counted on Magicals being a lot tougher than normals. The witch barely hesitated before casting another spell as she struggled to get to her feet. Again, Harry wasn't sure what the spell would have done if he hadn't avoided it, but it made his spider-sense shriek something awful.

"You blood-traitor filth! How dare you lay your hands on your betters! Now you die! Avada Kedavra!" she screamed.

Harry didn't need his spider-sense to be moving before she finished her spell. Harry had learned from Mrs. Figg about the Killing Curse when he mentioned his dreams with the green light. Now that Harry had his Hogwarts letter, both Mrs. Figg and his Aunt Petunia were willing to give a lot more specifics regarding the magical world.

Because of those stories, it was obvious that this woman must have been part of the Death Eaters; one who probably had gotten out of prison by claiming the Imperious Curse. Mrs. Figg's own husband had been killed by a Death Eater who claimed it. She said it was ludicrous and the real reason that the excuse worked is a lot of galleons had been passed under the table to make it happen.

Regardless of the reason this witch wasn't rotting in Azkaban, Harry wasn't going to give her another chance to send him to his parents. He crouched slightly before springing over her with a flip. As he did so, Harry raked her with his talons. Sadly, all he managed was to shred her cape. Still, it wrenched her around enough that his next strike ripped her throat out.

The witch barely gurgled before falling to the ground dead. Harry's first thought was he was lucky the force of the strike had made the witch turn so the gush of blood that had spewed from her throat had missed him.

Harry looked down at his bloodied hand as the realization hit him. He'd just killed the witch. Harry hadn't really thought about it. His body had simply reacted to the threat. Did he even consciously commit to killing her? Or was this part of his new spider powers? Whatever the reason, Harry wasn't going to hang around to think on it. He reached down and cleaned his hand of the witch's blood on her cape.

Given the lack of modern scientific practices, Harry figured either any magical police would miss any DNA or fingerprints or there was some spell that would catch him no matter what he did. Again, he wasn't going to stick around to find out. Luckily Harry figured that a dead witch in a back alley in Knockturn Alley wasn't going to be front page news.

So Harry grabbed his bag and climbed over the container to head back out into Diagon Alley and the rest of his shopping. Hopefully he'd be able to get out of the Alley before anyone found the body.

OoOoO

Amelia Bones turned into the alley and stepped under the yellow and red stripped rope that blocked it. While most Magicals ignored Muggles, Amelia had picked up quite a few tricks from her liaisons with the London Metro Police and other agencies. The colored rope was a spell she had commissioned to take the place of Muggle police tape. Not that most wizards, to include too many of her own aurors would know that.

She walked up to Kingsley Shacklebolt who was talking with a Wizpat. Amelia figured that the Wizard Patrol officer either found the body or someone actually reported it. Not that that sort of thing happened too often in Knockturn Alley, but occasionally the darker elements would rather get an auror investigation over and done with than let it drag out and bring more scrutiny.

Amelia smirked to herself; cockroaches hated the light. "What do we have, Shack?"

Both wizards nodded and said, "Director." Shacklebolt continued after the Wizpat moved away to give them some privacy. "Sort of a mess, frankly. Victim is Alecto Carrow. Cause of death is having her throat ripped out. However, before she died, she cast two cutting curses, a blasting curse, the organ-expelling curse and ended with the killing curse."

Amelia raised an eyebrow, "An interesting group of spells. Obviously, whatever attacked her meant business."

"Or whoever she attacked was good," Shacklebolt said. "Beyond her throat, her cape was shredded. The pattern is consistent with a hand. That would imply a vampire or werewolf but given the time of death was around noon and the full moon isn't for another week, that rules those attackers out. Right now I'm leaning towards an inferi, but the spells used aren't consistent with that. You'd expect fire spells and the AK doesn't work on inferi."

"Unless she was trying to kill whoever was controlling it. Still, I agree that you'd expect at least one fire spell to at least impede an inferi. Any magical residue?"

"Shacklebolt shook his head, "More weirdness. The tests came back with something akin to an acromantula, but unless someone crossed a human with an acromantula in some sort of abominable ritual, it doesn't make any sense."

"So what do we know leading up to the attack?" Bones asked.

Shacklebolt looked at his notes, "So far we don't know much. However before the time of death we've place Alecto with her brother, Hiram Goyle and Silas Crabbe having drinks at the Behind the Cyclops Eye pub. Luckily for us, they were there to talk to Mundugus Fletcher. He wouldn't say much, but I got the impression that he was being asked to help sell restricted items they wanted to unload in France."

Amelia nodded, "Sounds reasonable. Given the joint DMLE and Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department push on such items, I can see them wanting to sell rather than risk being raided. Then what happened?"

"Well another patron Officer Thorpe was able to find said he had overheard Alecto arguing with her brother. She felt that a teen eating at the pub was Harry Potter. He didn't believe her, but that she left the pub after the boy did."

Amelia blinked at this, "Come again? Harry Potter?"

Shacklebolt shrugged, "That's what he said. So the boy leaves, she follows and at some point, ends up dead in this alley."

"Who found the body?" Amelia asked.

"That would be Officer Thorpe. Given all four the them are on our watch list, one of our Alley informants called it in when he spotted them all together. By the time Officer Thorpe arrived, Alecto had already left. He observed, disillusioned, till they left. He had planned to follow them to see if they had further business but saw the body as he passed the alley. The use of an AK easily set off his Dark Magic detector."

Amelia sighed, "What I wouldn't give to be able to have those strung throughout the alley."

Shacklebolt chuckled, "And all it would take is half the gold in Gringotts."

"Any word what happened to the other three?" Amelia asked.

"They apparently went back to the apparition point they arrived at. If they knew Alecto had been dead by an hour or so, they didn't show the least indication," Shacklebolt said after checking his notes again.

"So what about the Harry Potter angle? I know he's aware of the magical world even if he lives in the Muggle world. But the Muggleborn and raised school trip isn't till Sunday." Amelia said with a frown.

"And given he is aware, the last place you'd expect to find him is in Knockturn Alley," Shacklebolt agreed.

"So do we know anything about the boy seen in the pub?" Amelia asked.

"Not much. From what Officer Thorpe has gathered and our preliminary investigation, the boy is likely a first year given he bought an owl and was spotted going into Ollivanders. However, the people I talked to said while dressed like a Muggle, the boy already had a wizarding look to him with a pony-tail. Also, the boy was alone and yet went everywhere in the Alley like he'd been here before. From the description, the boy matches Potter or at least the last time I saw a picture of the boy. The main difference, though, is this boy was wearing an odd set of glasses. Everyone talked to mentioned it. Potter has never been seen, to my knowledge, wearing anything like them.

"But even if it is Potter, we are left with what was he thinking going into Knockturn Alley to eat? And if Alecto followed him, did she attack him but was killed by someone protecting him?" Amelia wondered.

Shacklebolt shrugged, "Possibly. A lot of people would defend the savior of magical Britain. On the other hand, those types generally aren't found in back alleys in Knockturn either. That and we're back to what exactly killed Alecto. The boy, whoever he might be, certainly couldn't have done it given he just got his wand today. The only thing I can think of is if the boy did kill Alecto, I'm thinking he's actually a Muggle-raised and had some way to summon whatever killed Alecto. But that's almost as outlandish as a theory as anything else we have. As I said, this is a weird case. Plus, will Amycus Carrow and the rest push for an inquiry? I can see the old pure-bloods wanting to find her killer on general principle. On the other hand, it's not like being killed in Knockturn Alley under suspicious circumstances is out of the ordinary."

"And even if she hadn't died, we'd have put her into Azkaban for her Unforgivable," Amelia mused. "Well keep digging. Put in a good word for Officer Thorpe. I know how easy it is to ignore a Dark Magic alert when you're by yourself, especially doing covert work."

"What about Harry Potter?" Shacklebolt asked.

"What about him? Even if that boy was Harry Potter, we only have the hear-say about what was said and that's certainly not enough to question him. Also, unless something changes, I don't want to deal with Dumbledore. Besides, we'll get eyes on Potter at King's Cross come September. If it was him and things have changed, we can question him then. But if we do, you can bet Ted Tonks will pop out of the woodwork and press for all the loop-holes our supposed former Death Eaters have used so successfully. Muggle-raised or not, Potter is still from an Ancient and Most Noble House and the rules are stacked in his favor. Worse, him being a minor gives us fewer options. For now, I'd rather keep the Boy-Who-Lived out of it." Amelia ordered.

"Yes ma'am. Although I have to say I sort of hope that it was Potter and he was somehow involved," Shacklebolt said slowly.

"Why on earth can you think that?" Amelia asked.

Shacklebolt grinned sheepishly, "Well the whole reason Dumbledore forced Potter on his Muggle relatives against our traditions was to protect him. Now he's back in our world with all the dangers that implies. If Alecto did attack him...well she's dead and he's not. Bodes well for the next time someone takes a run at him."

Amelia scoffed at this, "Don't tell me you've bought into the whole Boy-Who-Lived hype. We both know he had nothing to do with the Dark Lord's death. While the Unspeakables aren't exactly sure what James and Lily did, ritual wise, a 15-month old toddler is only going to be involved as a target. If he hadn't bothered to try and wipe out the toddler, well we'd probably be slaving away under the Dark Lord's reign. I highly doubt there is anything special about Harry Potter."

Shacklebolt nodded, "Yeah, I know. Still, it would be nice if he was a hero like right out of those books. It would making having to read them to my kids over and over again worth it."

Amelia sighed, "Sadly Shack, unless Merlin or Captain America return from the dead, we're the only heroes everyday witches and wizards are going to get. And worst for us, even heroes have a lot of paperwork to do on this."

Shacklebolt groaned. He'd really been trying not to think about how late he was going to be getting home due to all the reports he'd have to get done. Maybe that's why he wished there was some sort of magical super-hero; then they would be the ones having to do all the hand-numbing work and allow him some time with his kids.

With a sigh at this flight of fancy, Shacklebolt followed Amelia back towards Officer Thorpe and the other aurors.

XxXxX

A/N: Okay, a lot of people are probably going, "WTF?! Another fic? Why can't he finish the ones he already has? Well right now I'm 'stand in place' at home along with my wife. However, my wife needs the good computer to work from home. That leaves me with a laptop that is old and only has Open Office on it. So I'm working on stories that don't require a lot of the tools and heavy internet usage. I ended up doing this because of wanting to work out some things given how this fic is set in my Ironheart continuity.

Reminder: Harry has been aware of magic his whole life. While he has little direct experience with it, he has access to his Aunt Petunia (a squib) who didn't have the nasty rivalry with her sister that canon has. Also, Vernon didn't see Harry as a freak. And Harry also has access to Mrs. Figg. Also, unlike canon, Harry asks questions!

Captain America: Given my take on the Thule Society, I'm betting he ended up fighting a few of Grindelwald's people before his final battle with the Red Skull.