Chapter 35

The tan rabbit listened to Penny as she spoke while she buried her nose in books on magical law, dueling tactics, spells for offense and defense. Penny seemed bound and determined to become an auror, the rabbit however simply lay in her lap accepting the gentle pets from Penny as she studied.

"Looks like biscuit wants to become an Auror. Wonder what made her decide that career path.."

"Yes you sarcastic prick, I understand that the fake death might have been a bit much and it's unhealthy that she's spending so much time studying and fighting."

"Well hey there Pot, have you met kettle?"

"Oh you can fuck right off."

Later when Penny finally felt her eyelids grow heavy she carried the bunny to her bed and the bunny once again ran its little circle before diving into the pillows while she changed for her last night at school before leaving for the summer and curled up with her little animal companion once again though the bunny would be gone when she woke up.

Dorian left the castle in his Animagus form and made his way well away from school grounds and past Hogsmeade before transforming back into his human form, stopping by a closed down shop and looking at his reflection in the shop window. His trademark wild, unkempt bedhead was something of a dead giveaway to anyone who might recognize him. He was dead for all intents and purposes, the fidelius charm made sure that no owls or other means of magical tracking could locate him, it was time for a change. Dorian pulled the hood up on his longcoat which in and of itself was a bit off to see a hood on a leather long coat but he was magical and it was about to rain if the smell of moisture in the air was anything to go by so he was glad for the protection the coat offered as he made his way South to London.

Dorian spent a day or so in the seedier part of London and unwisely so, at night so that no one would spot or recognize him. He made sure to get a hair cut which consisted of shaving the sides and back of his head nearly to the scalp and brushing his hair back. He smiled when he saw how he looked in the mirror and thought it made him look like a prohibition era gangster. After getting a haircut the underage wizard made his way to the coast and focused once more on allowing his body to fill with magical power, he had continued to practice so that he may one day achieve the ability to fly without a broom. It was just a theory but Dorian figured the part that was holding him back, at least for now was the initial take off from the ground, luckily along the coast, height and gravity would assist with take off so that he could make his way to France and from there.. well he would cross that bridge when he got to it. One jump later and Dorian felt weightless but he didn't feel the wind rising up to meet him, instead it was gently blowing past him as he was flying over the channel to the east, towards France.

Dorian smiled and decided to test the limits of his flying capabilities and leaned forward a bit more to pick up speed and quickly found out that he was going to have to practice flying fast as the wind dried his eyes out something awful. The other thing he was going to have to figure out quickly was landing without hurting himself.

While Dorian spent his time traveling around Europe, his knowledge of different languages came in quite handy as he made his way through France to Germany, Russia and into China and then Japan picking up little trinkets along the way, like an Oni mask carved out of jade he found in Japan, but with every new country he visited, every new spell he learned, every new book read he found he wasn't enjoying himself. He was honing his own magic, became quite adept at flying and even apparating but it never seemed to be enough. Something was missing, someone was missing. After spending so much time abroad Dorian eventually decided why not go back to the United States? That would take his mind off of her wouldn't it? From Japan, Dorian made his way onto a plane, much the same way he had as a child and flew back to the land he had escaped from so many years ago.

Dorian landed in California and simply walked to another gate, this time purchasing a ticket for Eastern Texas, he remembered how great the food was and found he craved it as he landed in Dallas and made his way to the nearest barbecue place, ignoring the looks he was receiving from the locals due to him wearing a fitted suit and tie as well as a messenger bag that had seen better days. After a few weeks traveling to various points of interest in the states, acquiring a Pork Pie style hat made of felted beaver fur Dorian found that no matter what he did, where he went he always thought of Penny. After spending years traveling the world Dorian sighed and looked at himself in the mirror of a house he was staying in while the owners were on vacation in Aspen. He saw himself in his fitted suit, his 1920's hair cut and beaver hat before sitting down and digging in his messenger bag and pulling out a small collection of photos.

"We had a good run didn't we?"

"Yes, yes we did."

"Any objection to going back?"

"Home is where the heart is."

"Confucious say what the fuck?"

"No matter where we were, what we were doing, you always wanted to go back, if for nothing else than to see Biscuit."

"Think we should let her know we're alive?"

"I'd play that one by ear, no matter what she's likely to knock the shit out of you."

Penny spent her summer working out the way she always did with Dorian, running in the morning at least 3 times a week and on the days when she wasn't running she was in a gym learning how to box or some other form of Martial Arts as Dorian had informed her there is no such thing as a fair fight and if you can get close enough to someone that their use of a wand is impractical then they'll either give up or try to physically fight you, make sure you can rip them apart. Penny once again took up the position of Prefect and continued with her studies, her workout routine and martial arts training. By the end of her seventh and final year Penny was in the top five of her class, Thaddeus unsurprisingly was the first in her year, Fiona was number four as she spent more time studying than Penny. When graduation came Penny went and hugged Professor McGonagall who seemed to be having a rough time, The Transfiguration Professor was looking at the graduates and scanning the crowd as if she were looking for someone, looking for him. After a tearful hug Penny insisted that Professor McGonagall come with her and her parents to dinner. McGonagall tried to politely decline but the Hufflepuff girl wouldn't take no for an answer and so the Walker's and McGonagall all went to dinner though they all felt as though someone was going to show up at any given moment, someone they all missed but wouldn't speak of.

Penny wasted no time and immediately applied to be an auror for the ministry, given her grades, post as prefect and work she had done at Hogwarts rooting out predators it was no surprise that Penny got accepted and soon was in training, training she seemed to excel at. After her three years in the Auror training program Penny became a full fledged Auror and started researching what she could about an incident regarding an English wizard who was murdered in Paris years prior. There were some raised eyebrows and when questioned Penny simply said "If our citizens can be murdered on foreign soil then the least we can do is look into what has been done as far as the other countries investigation.".

This answer seemed reasonable and Penny was sent to France to try to figure out what happened with the now cold case.

Something happened however in her time in France, between digging through old reports and running down old leads Penny met someone and shortly thereafter came home angry. Angry and pregnant.

"Darling, what happened?" Rosalind Walker asked as Penny walked through the front door, looking rather distraught.

"Well I was working Dorian's case, going over what the French aurors had found, spending time in the records room and cross referencing everything I knew about Dorian when I met Pierre.. He was the liaison I was assigned to work with.. Well naturally we spent a lot of time together and after a while we started going out and dating and it was great." Penny said honestly, keeping any bitterness out of her voice.

"But?" Rosalind asked knowing there was a reason Penny had come back home angry/

"Everything was great, he was helping me find out what happened to Dorian, we were dating and… When he found out that I was pregnant he tried to slip me a drought that would terminate the pregnancy.." Penny confided in her Mum.

"What did you do?" Rosalind asked while rubbing her daughters back, flicking her wand and summoning some tea for them.

"I threw the glass at his head and told him I was keeping the baby. He said that he wouldn't have anything to do with the baby or me. I- I made him swear that he wouldn't." Penny said as a few tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared at the tea cup in her hands, unaware that a little tan rabbit was underneath the kitchen window listening.

"Oh.."

"Did you think that she was gonna be a dried up spinster? You- We're dead."

"Not that fucker. That someone would leave her like that."

"Hi pot, nice to see you again, checking up on kettle?"

"She wasn't pregnant you dick!"

"...Fair enough."

Penny worked for as long as she could before taking maternity leave and having a beautiful little girl who was the spitting image of her mother but with dirty blonde hair instead of Penny's strawberry blonde. Every once in a while Penny would catch glimpses of a rabbit out of the corner of her eye but only just a glimpse, if she turned to look at it fully it would run off or disappear entirely. Rosalind and Callum were a huge help for Penny and even talked Penny into going back to work when her Daughter Ava turned six months old. Penny was against it at first until she was hand picked for a mission to hunt down a wizard that was peddling dark objects, Penny was picked because she knew the wizard, she had gone to school with him, Malcolm Thorne. Penny spent a couple of nights in the Leaky Cauldron looking out her window into Diagon Alley and at least part way into Knockturn Alley until it got too dark to see into the seedy part of the market. Penny would then put on a cloak and pull it low over her face, doing what she could to hide her identity before entering Knockturn Alley.

The dark witches and wizards, dregs of magical society were out and about, conducting their less than legitimate business, seeming not to notice the hooded and cloaked figure making their way through the alley as most of them were dressed in similar fashion. A bit further down the alley Penny spotted a man she knew had been convicted of peddling stolen and dark good, Mundungus Fletcher. Penny approached Mundungus as if she were going to purchase something only to push him into an even darker part of the alley and putting her wand to his throat.

"I'm not here for you, I'm here for a man by the name of Malcolm Thorne." Penny said, wanting to wrap this up as quick as she could so she could get back to her daughter.

"If he ain't at Borgin and Burkes I dunno where he is I promise!" Mundungus said, sounding pitiful and slyly trying to reach for his wand.

"Your hand touches your wand and your head leaves your shoulders. I'm not in the fucking mood." Penny warned seriously causing Mundungus to lift both hands.

"I swear, around midnight he goes to Borgin and Burkes." Mundungus said as honestly as someone like him could.

"Good boy. You didn't see me, you weren't questioned by anyone, If I find out you opened your mouth or this is a set up, anything at all happens to me and Mad Eye is coming for you." Penny said through gritted teeth before leaving Mundungus and sitting in the darkest corner of Knockturn Alley she could find to wait for a glimpse of Thorne, if all went well she could get Borgin and Burke put out of business as well.

Midnight came and went with no sign of Thorne, Penny was about to leave at 1 in the morning when she saw someone making their way to Borgin and Burkes, dressed similarly as she and everyone else in the alley only for them to remove their hood once they reached the door. Curtis Burke opened the door and allowed Malcolm to enter quickly before shutting and locking back up. Penny smirked under her hood and cast a notice-me-not charm on herself and approached the edge of the window and peered through, looking for anything that seemed illegal enough to allow her to enter forcefully, she didn't have to wait long until she saw Thorne pull out a couple of bottles which looked to be poison but that wasn't enough. It was only when she saw Thorne pull out two death eater masks that she got excited and instantly blasted the door open and entered, wand raised and trained on her two former schoolmates.

"Hey guys. Nice masks. You are under arrest." Penny said cheerily before she was having to fight two dark wizards at once. They had gotten better since their days in Hogwarts, used darker, more dangerous spells or Penny had gotten rusty since she hadn't kept up with her training since she became pregnant with Ava. Penny was holding her own quite well against two dark wizards but soon was having to give ground as they started to outmatch her, these two had clearly fought with each other before and though she hated to admit it, they played off of each other quite well. After a few minutes of trading spells back and forth, moving to different positions of cover Penny was hit with a stunner and blown through the back door of the shop and into the storage room where there was cover but it was dangerous since the crates held objects that did Merlin knows what.

"Oh come on now. You can do better than that Walker. What would Dorian say?" Burke said with a laugh

"Not a fucking thing. Should we tell her?" Thorne added.

"I don't see why not, play with her a bit before we finish it." Burke responded, his voice coming from off to the side, having split from Thorne to cover more ground in the storage room and possibly flank Penny since they didn't know where she was but confident that they had her attention and she wouldn't leave without hearing what they had to say about Dorian.

"What about him?" Penny asked, using magic to throw her voice so it sounded as though she was in a back corner of the storage room.

"We fuckin' killed him." Thorne said with a laugh.

"We got Avery and she got a werewolf and we got him in Paris." Burke added.

"And by the time were done playing with you. You'll be begging for what Dorian got." Thorne said before he clamped a hand down on her wrist and twisting sharply, breaking her wrist, causing her to drop her wand and cry out in pain just as Burke rounded the corner and came into her line of sight.

"I'll fucking kill you both!" Penny cried out as Burke smiled and started to unbuckle his belt only to be blasted out of his shoes and collide with the back wall, knocking him unconscious, Burke was still breathing but it was strained, his neck was also clearly broken. Penny smiled as she figured reinforcements had shown up only for a man wearing a long coat with a hood stepped forward and aimed his wand at Thorne who put his hands up and stood slowly only to turn and apparate.

Penny looked at the stranger nervously, unclear as to what his intentions were when he flicked his wand at her wrist, with a painful pop her wrist reset and she instinctively grabbed for her wand, plucking it from the floor and aiming it at the stranger but he was gone, he had apparated as well. Penny shuddered as it dawned on her what a close call she had just had. She was going to have a lot of explaining to do and a lengthy report but at least she was going to be able to give a report. Penny walked over to Burke's crumpled body and checked if he was still alive, he was but barely. Penny grabbed hold of Burkes leg and apparated to St. Mungo's and placed him in shackles after confiscating his wand before sending a message to her superiors for back up. As soon as a couple of aurors arrived to stand guard over Burke in St. Mungo's Penny made her way to the DMLE as fast as she could to report her findings to not only her superiors but to the department head herself Amelia Bones and have a warrant issued for the arrest of Malcolm Thorne and Sarah Avery. A quick look at the memory of what had happened in the storage room of Borgin and Burke's, what Burke and Thorne had admitted to, a tired but alert Amelia Bones had no issues immediately ordering for warrants to be issued for the arrest of the two murderers but she did stop Penny before the young auror could leave.

"I am quite pleased with your work, you are a great asset but I do have to ask.. Of all the cold cases, out of everything you could have done as an auror and in general given your grades.. Why did you become an auror and why this case in particular?" Amelia Bones asked Penny.

"Dorian was.. Dorian was my friend.. He was my boyfriend.. He was something special, he was kind and violent when the situation demanded it, smart as a whip even though he was quite good at making people believe otherwise. He came from nothing, literally he fled the States, lived on the streets for years before attending Hogwarts and dealt with so much shit while there. He actually had a home in Paris but he never told me who he was related to or descended from, I think the only one that might know would be Professor McGonagall." Penny said before blinking a few times as she realized she had just spoken about Dorian more in the past thirty seconds than she had in years.

Amelia Bones listened and simply smiled with a nod of her head, this Dorian might be dead but he had left quite the impression on the young auror.

"Now that I know your reason for trying to see this case through to the end do you have any idea who the hooded figure was that saved you? Whether criminal or good samaritan we need to question them." Amelia Bones said matter of factly.

"No idea Madame Bones, but if I ever see them again I'm likely to thank them rather than haul them in. Because of them I didn't get violated and I get to go see my daughter." Penny said with a smile thinking about her little girl.

Amelia smiled at Penny.

"I heard you just came back from maternity leave, go on home and give your little one a hug. We have lots of work to do." Amelia said with a smile as the two left her office.

"That was so fucking stupid..."

"You would have rather not done anything and watched those animals do whatever they wanted with Penny? You did the right thing."

"No, I acted like you and didn't think things through. What if she figures out it was us?"

"Careful brother, that almost sounded like an insult and if she had any idea it was us she would have said so."

"I don't know… We'll have to lay low for a while."

"That's a damn lie, you know as well as I that if Penny ever gets in over her head again we're stepping in and making sure she gets home safe and unharmed."

"You know.. It's really annoying that I can't argue with you."

"Love you too bro."

"We do need something though, to keep our face hidden in case the hood isn't enough or falls down."

"Well.. we do have that jade Oni mask from Japan."

"Perfect. But we need a couple other preparations just in case."

Penny and the auror department was busy for the next few days planning on how best to go about arresting two murderers. Sarah Avery must have gotten tipped off because she didn't come into work at the ministry following the encounter with Burke and Thorne, Thorne was seemingly in the wind, and being that he was half and half he could very well be in the muggle world which would make finding him that much more difficult. After some more planning and receiving some intel on where Thorne was they planned an assault on his location, multiple aurors would surround the building he was in and set anti-apparation wards so he could not escape while another team entered the building to apprehend him. Avery as it turns out was holed up in one of her families decrepit estates along the coast. As much as Penny hated Malcolm Thorne she doubted she would be able to keep her head clear if confronted with him since he knew what to say to get under her skin, Sarah Avery would be the smarter choice. Penny and her team all gathered around the portkey and touched it at the appointed time to be transported just outside of the estates wards so as not to set them off and alert her of the aurors presence.

The wards were old and hadn't been refreshed, no new ones added and looking at the estate if they hadn't known what to look for they would have left almost immediately since it appeared abandoned except for the disturbed dust at the landing for the front door. Four of the aurors broke off to go to their appointed location to set anti apparation wards while Penny and the others likewise took up positions along the estate and entered all at once. After gaining entry there was some shouting, the sound of spells being cast and hitting walls, breaking glass then silence, soon followed by more of the same. Penny rushed towards the sound only stopping when she felt she was close enough and quietly making her way around to try to flank Sarah who had home field advantage. Penny heard some footsteps moving away from her when one of her fellow aurors silently crept out of the hallway towards her and nodded when she motioned for the other auror to get behind her so they could both charge into the room at the same time. Penny held her hand up and used her fingers to start counting backwards from 5, when she got to two however the other auror grabbed her wand and ripped it from her hand and grabbed her hair before forcing her into the room and throwing her to the floor. Penny was confused and looked at her traitorous colleague only to see his face start to bubble and change which she immediately recognized as an effect of Polyjuice Potion running out of time and soon she was looking into the eyes of Malcolm Thorne as Sarah Avery joined him and looked down at Penny.

"You know, we really have to stop meeting like this." Thorne said with a sadistic grin.

"Enough Thorne. We need to use this bitch as a bargaining chip, there are more outside, we cant apparate out of here, you can play with her later but for now-" Sarah started to say before the wall closest to them seemed to implode and only for all the plaster, wood and anything else that could have at one point been a part of the wall to seemingly disintegrate into nothingness.

"Well well… We have to stop meeting like this." the hooded figure said, the person who was underneath, masking their identity's voice seemed distorted and almost far away. The auror who was nearest the entry way the hooded figure just made seemed unsure of what to do as the other team who went to what they believed was Malcolm's location started to arrive.

"Who the fuck is this?" Sarah asked, starting to seriously panic.

"It's him, the one who got Burke." Thorne said and started flinging spell after spell towards the figure only for the new comer to dodge most of the spells from Thorne, only adding magical defensive spells when Sarah joined and started casting her own spells.

From Penny's perspective the hooded figure from before was there to rescue her but she didn't know who they were or why they seemed so hell bent on keeping her safe but dealing with two opponents was a challenge though the hooded figure seemed quite at ease, almost as if they were toying with Avery and Thorne. A few seconds after Avery started casting spells her thoughts on the hooded figure toying with them were proven as the hooded figure seemed to grow tired of playing and swiped their wand from left to right with multiple quick but subtle flicks of the wrist sending a volley of different spells at both Thorne and Avery to distract them before bringing their left hand across and using non-verbal, wandless magic and knocked both of their wands from their hands. With one final flourish of their wand the hooded figure blasted both Thorne and Avery into the wall only to have the curtains and tablecloths that were still intact wrap their hands behind their backs.

"Go home to your daughter." The hooded figure said to Penny before turning and leaving through the massive hole in the side of the building they had just blasted only to be met by a team of angry aurors outside and an absolutely furious Penny charging up behind them and pulling the hood from their head. Penny couldn't see the hooded persons face as they were facing at the auror's outside but she could tell it was a man from the haircut, what made Penny nervous however was the look on her colleagues faces.

"Who are you?" Penny asked curiously.

The now cloaked but unhooded figure slowly turned and Penny felt her knees tremble a bit as she was staring at a jade Oni mask.

"You'll figure it out in time, I'm certain." The masked figure said, tilting its head to the side a bit almost as if trying to seem friendly but the less than friendly face of the jade mask just made the motion unsettling. Penny reached up for the mask and tried to pull it away but the mask was stuck to the mans face.

"Really a sticking charm? Well you are going into custody, we'll see how long your little charm works because I want some fucking answers!" Penny shouted.

"You will be waiting a long time. Permanent sticking charm, also; what am I being charged with that warrants my being taken into custody?" the masked man asked as he watched a couple of aurors go inside to apprehend Thorne and Avery.

"Interfering with an official ministry operation for starters." Mad Eye Moody said, limping up towards them and pushing through the other Aurors.

"Fuck all kinds of duck…" The masked man said

The masked man turned to Moody and faced him, almost as if looking his dead in the eyes. For the first time in the gathered aurors careers they saw Moody stop dead in his tracks.

"That's… You're…" Moody said

With Moody being distracted by the revelation of just who was under the mask and the shock that the younger aurors were feeling at seeing the man that trained them being at a loss the man in the mask seized the opportunity to turn on heel and apparate and evade capture.

"What the hell Moody? Who was that?" Penny asked her grizzled superior who simply looked at her and pulled a flask from his coat and took a swig before going about his business, barking orders at the younger aurors and doing everything he could to avoid answering Penny's question.