Chapter Fifteen – Hamilton Square Station

A drunk homeless man was shouting at nothing in the bleak, dark tube station at Birkenhead's Hamilton Square. He was one of only two people present at this late hour of the night. Him and a dark-haired spectacled man in his late thirties who sat at the other end of the platform.

Harry Potter casually observed the filthy, rugged man pacing around as he sat on one of the cold seats of the station. He noticed the drifter pass a bizarre bit of advertisement that displayed:

Progressive Echo

The future is near!

Muggles… thought Harry with a subtle smirk. Their ads are becoming more and more abstract and pretentious.

'Hags and sorcerers and goblins and elves! They're out there hiding!' yelled the man on the other end of the platform.

If only you knew… Harry smirked again. He glanced at the watch on his wrist that used to belong to Fabian Prewett. They should be here soon.

It had been a long day. The first day, in fact, that Harry had dared show his face in public since the incident on Christmas Eve exactly three months ago. He could not face anyone sooner. Not after the many deaths that had occurred that day. Harry had been devastated. He couldn't sleep, nor eat or shower. He had been a mess. It was only for the support of his wife Ginny – helping him, calming him down at the worst of moments – and Beth Roberts – Harry's secretary who brought him his paperwork and reports to his house – that he had managed to bring himself out of this state. Ron, Hermione, and Teddy had been paying him visits too. 'It's a part of the job. It's not your fault. It never was,' they had said, 'Focus on work, keep going. Don't let those animals at the Daily Prophet see you hurting.'

And so, he did – throw himself into his work. Harry tried focusing on potential suspects that could have known about the cave. He tried the Death Eater route again but to no avail. He tried thinking of Montgomery, of course, and – though it was possible – his Aurors could not produce any proof that Montgomery had done it. Nor could he think of any way Montgomery could have found out about the cave.

But then something curious had happened. His Aurors had reported that Erasmus van Helmont – which had been curiously absent the night of the battle – had 'returned to the country after a long period abroad.' Harry had been quite suspicious of the young man of late. He'd sent him a message via Nuntillud, asking him to join them that night of the battle, but it went unanswered. He later found out that Rasmi had apparently left the country with no trace or clue as to his destination.

This led him to the events of earlier today: as soon as he had heard about Rasmi's return, Harry had dressed up and walked out of 12 Grimmauld Place for the first time in months. He had wanted to hear what the man had to say for himself in person and – should it be necessary – bring him in for an official questioning and lock him up.

As he paced through Diagon Alley that morning, Harry had noticed several Daily Prophet reporters doing a very bad job at stalking him slowly. He'd assumed that would happen the moment he showed his face in public. He didn't care much what they said about him in the papers as long as he got some answers from Rasmi. He had managed to get them off his tail right before he found the handsome building – not far from Gringotts – which housed Rasmi's flat.

"Flat" was stretching it, thought Harry as he climbed the steep stone stairs all the way to Rasmi's handsome penthouse residence. Right before he had knocked on the large oak door, he could hear Rasmi's voice: '…yes but can an essence produce physical form?'

*KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK*

'Oh – er – come in please, Harry,' called Rasmi.

Harry had walked into a handsome, bright, and wide living room with a large fireplace on his right-hand side and, on the other end, large windows and French doors that led to a big terrace outside. In a study way in the back – past a very modern, almost Muggle-looking, kitchen and dining area – sat Rasmi. He had just hastily put something in one of his desk's drawers when Harry had walked in.

'Welcome to my humble abode, Harry. How have you been?' he had asked as he got up from his desk to greet his visitor.

'Not so humble this abode of yours, I'd say…' Harry had mumbled as he advanced through the penthouse and into Rasmi's study. A weird feeling had crept up on Harry. Rasmi's office had displayed many of the same delicate-looking silver instruments that Dumbledore's had back in the day. The same ones that had whirred, trembled, and emitted small puffs of smoke.

'Well, "one must keep his pride in check even when he can afford the better things in life," my father always says,' Rasmi had replied. 'Fancy a cuppa? It's awfully early and I could only imagine the foul mood – '

'No thanks,' Harry had cut him off. The auburn-haired youth had seemed slightly disappointed. Nevertheless, he'd motioned Harry into the chair in front of him. Harry had kept observing the room as he sat down. Many books – some in foreign languages Harry did not recognise – had covered the walls. A small doorway – surely to a bedroom – had stood between a couple of the bookshelves. In one of the corners was a globe that shone brightly on one end – probably showing the current time of day in each part of the world. It also had soft clouds and different weather showing on different parts of it along with small magical bubbles of written reports that floated out of it. Neat, thought Harry. He had turned his head to look in the other corner and saw –

'Is that – ' Harry had inquired in spite of himself. 'Is that a Muggle computer?'

'What? – ah yes,' replied Rasmi with a smile. 'I like to keep up with Muggle world news, and I find that their "internet" is the best way to do it. Had to put several counter-interference charms around that corner so that electronics would actually work around here – what with all the magic in the air. If you ever try it, which I highly recommend, go for the smaller, independent news outlets. They usually provide less biased reporting. Avoid the "Book of Faces", bunch of nonsense and crazy conspiracies. Funny story, I – '

'Mr van Helmont where were you on the night of the twenty-fourth of December?' Harry had asked bluntly.

'Cutting right to the chase now, are we?' Rasmi had replied, straightening up in his chair.

'If you don't mind.'

'Well, I already told the nice Aurors Mr Thomas had sent me that I've been visiting family for the holidays.'

'The holidays ended almost three months ago, Mr van Helmont, what took you so long?'

'I've got a big family in all sorts of places, Harry. It takes time to go through all of them,' he had replied politely. After a short moment of silence, he had added: 'But you wouldn't be here if you believed this story, would you Harry Potter?'

Harry shook his head.

'Well, I think it's safe to tell you now that I haven't actually been visiting family this entire time.'

'You don't say.'

'I've actually been on a secret mission.'

'A mission? What mission? What for?'

'A mission for you of course.'

Harry had looked at him puzzled.

'You see I went on a lovely holiday to the jungles of Papua New Guinea.'

'Papua New Guinea? What were you doing – ' Harry had realised then the reason for Rasmi's visit to the remote island.

'You went looking for – '

'Travers. Yes, he fled there after that nasty business in Australia.'

'But why?'

'I figured it's a thread of the investigation you were reluctant to explore further. I assumed that you were concerned about your Aurors' safety – especially after all that mess on Christmas Eve – and so, being far less anxious about my own life and knowing you would be too, I've decided to venture into one of the few places on this Earth I have yet to visit: Oceania.'

Harry had been dumbfounded. He hadn't been sure whether he could trust Rasmi's story yet. At the same time, however, he had felt immense respect for the young man's courage and dedication.

'And? Did you find anything? Did you find Travers?' Harry had asked, trying to entertain this story further.

'Well yes, sort of. I'm afraid he is very much dead, Harry.'

Harry had given him a puzzled look. 'How did you find him?'

'I first went to Coffs Harbour in Australia where, if you recall, he had killed a girl about a year ago now.'

'The Australian Ministry couldn't find him though, they tried to track him down to Papua New Guinea, but I heard they never made it out of the jungles.'

'Yes, well I'm afraid I am a bit more capable at tracking fellow wizards than Ministry officials. To the well-trained eye, any magic leaves a trace of evidence in the place it was cast.

'I managed to trace him all the way to a particularly dense part of the jungle. When I got there, I had to escape a particularly nasty clan of Acromantulas. It was pretty soon after that that I was saved by, and made acquaintance with, a local tribe who had a magical healer – a wizard – who told me about another wizard Englishman he knows that lived further up the mountain. He said he arrived a few months prior and that he had seemed unfriendly.

'I rested with the tribe for the next few days and then proceeded up the mountain to investigate this matter. Very near the top of that mountain, I found a little camping site by a cave that seemed to have been abandoned about three to four days earlier – give or take. I stayed the night there and, to my immense displeasure, I found out that Travers had been unwisely sharing the cave with a particularly large Lethifold.'

Harry's eyes widened.

'Luckily it wasn't hungry – evidently, it had a pretty large meal before encountering me – and so I had the opportunity to kill it and dissect it. I found what remained of Travers inside the Lethifold…'

'How do you know it was him?' asked Harry.

'I took a photo with me before I went, just to be sure.' Rasmi pulled out a small photograph from one of the drawers beside him. He showed it to Harry. A tall, thin wizard with a crown of bushy grey hair and a long sharp nose frowned at him from the photo. It was Travers.

'I am more than happy to provide you with my memories,' Rasmi had waved his wand in the direction of a large cabinet on Harry's right-hand side out of which flew a brand-new-looking Pensieve that landed on Rasmi's desk. A weird, bright, whitish silver, liquid-gas substance had moved ceaselessly within it: memories.

Rasmi had pulled out a vial and poked his wand at the substance. He then cleared the Pensieve into the flask and handed it over to Harry.

'So did you go directly to Papua New Guinea from here?' asked Harry.

'Oh no unfortunately I did actually spend one month with relatives before going on that trip. I did not reply to your message since I left my Nuntillud at home. I'm afraid my mother doesn't approve of them,' Rasmi had replied with a smile. 'I could give you the memories of these events too, but I wouldn't want to subject you to that.'

'Hmmpf,' Harry snickered politely.

'Would you still like to take me in for questioning?'

'How did you know I wanted – '

'I'm a very decent Legilimens Harry, and you – I'm afraid – are a very bad Occlumens…' he smiled at him.

'So I've been told…' sighed Harry. 'No, there's no need. I believe you. I'll just check your memories for the records. It was good of you to do that, and it was good of you not to share this information with just any Auror, thank you Rasmi.'

'It was my pleasure.'

Back in the present Harry was checking his watch again. Ron and Teddy should be here any minute now.

The homeless man went back up to the street now that he was done picking the garbage bins for bottles and cans. Harry, back in his thoughts, remembered how earlier that day – after the investigation was all done – he had sat down for tea with Rasmi after the initial questioning.

Several moments into their conversation about the upcoming Quidditch World Cup, Rasmi's globe had started making a loud and irritating beeping sound.

'It does that every time there's some suspicious message sent via Nuntillud I'm afraid,' explained Rasmi. 'I set it to do that ever since they went public, to make sure the Madley Killer doesn't use one. Here let me go check that, just a minute.'

It had not been more than a moment since Rasmi got up from his chair on the balcony when he called Harry back in his office.

'You've got to see this Harry,' he had said.

'What is it?'

Rasmi cleared Harry's view of the Magical Globe to reveal an enlarged message floating in the air. It read:

'Potter's out and about again. We'll make our move soon.'

'What the – ' started Harry.

'Here give me a second,' replied Rasmi. He performed a complex-looking wand movement at the Globe and an enlarged hologram of Great Britain appeared before it. It had a little shining dot of light roughly where Liverpool would be.

'Hmmm…' started Rasmi. 'It seems it came from around Liverpool – no – Birkenhead. If you give me some time, I can tell you the exact street and house number. Maybe even the serial number of the Nuntillud unit and by whom it was purchased.'

'What do you think it means?' asked Harry, his mind racing in a thousand different directions now.

'I don't know. But if you ask me, it might be a trap they're setting up for you to be honest.'

'Figured so myself. They probably know you're back in the country and – '

'And they would conclude that you came to see me and that I would tell you about this little message – '

'Which would make me go looking so they could either kill me or grab me.'

'Yup. So, what do you think you'll do then?'

'Well, I'll have to go there and investigate, won't I?'

Rasmi had laughed at that. 'Figured you'd say that.'

'What choice do I have? I really don't want to sit and find out what the "move" is.'

'Surely there must be a safer way of doing that though?'

'I'm not going to send any more of my Aurors to their deaths.'

'At least take a couple people to watch over you, just in case, you know.'

'I can hit up Teddy and maybe Ron. I'll send Dean Thomas and couple of his Aurors to patrol Birkenhead and – '

'That would be unwise,' interrupted Rasmi.

'How so?'

'Right now, they don't really know if I've seen the message and relayed it to you. They can only guess that I did or keep trying until you show up. If you send Aurors their way, it'll let them know you took the bait and give them more time to prepare before you actually do show up. My advice would be to take them by surprise.'

'Yeah… I guess you're right.'

'I'll keep an eye out for any messages and update you – via regular owl post – whenever I figure out exactly where this was sent from and to.'

After that Harry had gone to his office at the Ministry. He had not been there for months at that point and – though it did seem a bit cold and empty – Beth had kept it from looking abandoned. He spent the rest of his day diving into Rasmi's memories – which proved to be legitimate – and catching up on paperwork. He had also sent messages to Teddy and Ron asking them to accompany him whenever he went to investigate the mysterious message at Birkenhead.

That evening, just as Harry was about to go home for the night, Rasmi's Letter had reached him. It said that the message was sent from a house on Elmswood Road in Birkenhead to someplace near Dundee by a man called Jeremy Brooks. Rasmi had said he would go check the place by Dundee while Harry and his friends went to Birkenhead.

And that was it. Before long Harry had sat down at the agreed-upon spot in Birkenhead's Hamilton Square Station. Harry glanced at his watch again. They were late now. What was taking them –

'There you are mate,' said a familiar voice to Harry's distant right.

He looked up to see Ron standing with Teddy on the other end of the platform.

'We thought you'd be waiting up on the street,' he explained with a smile. 'Didn't realise you'd be hiding down here.'

'Can't take any chances. Better not show myself before it's absolutely necessary,' said Harry. 'Shall we go then?'

'Let's do this,' muttered Teddy.

They got out of the station and walked through the dark, deserted streets of the city. It was a foggy and cool Sunday night and the steps the trio took echoed from the damp pavement.

'Who is that Jeremy Brooks bloke, anyhow? Do you know him?' asked Ron as they paced.

'He's a local lowlife. One of Dung Fletcher's associates,' answered Harry. 'I ran a background check on him, and there was nothing to indicate he'd been involved in the Dark Arts in any capacity in the past. Just some minor offences with fake Galleons and unauthorised merchandise. But then again, he seems like the type to do anything for the right price, so you never know…'

They advanced through the empty streets turning a corner onto a dirty-looking neighbourhood. It was very quiet and desolate. This was clearly a bad part of town, the sort of place you would expect some commotion or dark stares from gaunt-looking individuals on the street at that time of night, but there was nobody to be seen.

'Feels too quiet around here…' whispered Teddy, as though reading Harry's mind.

'Hold on to your wands but keep them under your jackets,' said Harry. 'Be ready to act at a moment's notice.'

They were looking around into the small alleyways and weed-covered fronts of the tightly packed houses. Before long, they reached Elmswood Road. They walked over to a particularly unkept-looking house in the middle of the street.

'Is that the place?' murmured Ron.

Harry nodded.

'Should we come in with you?' asked Teddy, his wand now held out in his palm.

'Teddy, you come in with me and watch my back,' started Harry. 'Ron, I need you to become invisible and stay outside to see if anything suspicious is going on from out here.'

'Er – I'll try to – er – ' began Ron.

Harry pointed his wand at his mate and performed a silent Invisibility Charm. Ron took on a deep shade of grey which made him barely noticeable in the dim light of the street around them.

'Close enough,' muttered Harry, making a mental note to practice the charm again. He was getting a bit rusty after three months of sitting at home.

Harry looked at Teddy now, nodding as if to ask whether he was ready. Teddy nodded back at him in reassurance. They walked over slowly to the front door of the house. Its paint – which may have been a shade of red in its better days, but now was more of a greyish brown – was peeling to reveal a cheap-looking wooden door. Harry, dreading to touch it with his bare skin, performed a silent Unlocking (Alohomora) Charm. The lock clicked and the door creaked open to reveal a dusty hallway. It was as quiet inside as it had been outside. The house seemed cold and abandoned. Harry paced inside it with his wand out, not daring to light it up just yet.

He looked back at Teddy and motioned him to cover the door to their left – which had been slightly open – while Harry tried the door on the right – which had been closed shut. Teddy walked over to the left door and pushed it gently; it led to a small kitchen and dining room that was covered in a thick layer of dust. Harry performed another silent Unlocking Charm and pushed the door open with his right foot. He entered a dark, dusty, and cramped sitting room that seemed to have all its furniture pushed to one side and –

'DON'T GET ANY CLOSER!' yelled a frightened voice from inside the sitting room.

*THUMP*

Harry heard Teddy jump and crash into something in the other room.

He lit up his wand to reveal a bald, wheezy-looking man in his forties. He appeared to be twitching and fighting an urge to touch something over the soot-covered fireplace. Something pointy and large…

'An Erumpent horn? Mr Brooks, get away from that,' said Harry, trying to remain calm and speak softly while at the same time pointing his wand at the man. 'It's extremely dangerous, sir, I think you ought to – '

'They made – ergh – they made me do it!' he mumbled.

Teddy showed up behind Harry now. He tried pushing him back into the hallway discreetly with his left hand. Harry felt Teddy's foot brush up against his ankle as he stumbled backwards.

'Who are "they"?' asked Harry, trying to keep the conversation going. Staying still and avoiding any sudden movements.

The door creaked again. This was not ideal.

'B – brother and s – OOOF – sister. Stocky, w – with – with their big gorilla arm – m – mate – ARGHPFF – Imp – Imp – Imperiused me!' Brooks was desperately trying to hold on to his left arm, fighting his own body against all odds.

'Mr Brooks listen to me; you've got to concentrate on your own thoughts. Block out the voice that's telling you to touch this thing.'

'HMPFF – OOOF – ERCH – I'm trying – I – '

Brooks spat, twisted, and cried. He was getting closer to the horn. Harry lifted his wand again slowly, aiming it in the direction of the man in front of him.

'Expelliarmus!' called Brooks. Harry's wand flew out of his hand. In one surreal moment, Brooks and Harry stared at each other, in sheer shock of what happened. Brooks' face went serious, he lunged at the horn –

'NOOO!'

*THUD*

Something big had tackled Brooks to the ground. He was now struggling against a large grey mass that was holding him down.

'A little help here Harry?' said Ron's voice from down on the floor.

Harry blinked quickly and grabbed his wand.

'Locomotor Mortis!' he called, aiming his wand at Brooks. His legs immediately shut together, straight and unmoving.

Ron got up from over him, pointed his wand at himself, and whispered 'Revelio.' His appearance changed back into his normal colours. 'What was all that about, eh?' he asked with a sigh, wiping off the dust from his shirt and jacket.

Brooks was wheezing and struggling against Harry's curse on the floor beside him.

'They Imperiused the poor bastard,' explained Harry. 'He managed to give me a short description. Two stocky siblings and a gorilla armed man, sound familiar?'

Ron's face quickly switched from confusion to raised eyebrows to comprehension. 'D'you think that – '

A bright shiny light shone through the window. The trio looked out through the window behind them when a large, silvery Thestral flew through it. The Patronus spoke with Rasmi's voice as it said: 'It was a trap. Sort of. Found a Hogwarts student in a small shack by Dundee. He drank poison right as I walked through the door. I managed to save him, but he's gone under. Taking him to St Mungo's now. How about you?'

'A Hogwarts student? Who d'you think that might be?' asked Teddy as the Thestral faded away. He sounded worried.

'I don't know. Rasmi didn't know them by the looks of it, so I reckon it's nobody we know…' answered Harry.

'Well as long as they're still alive,' muttered Ron. 'Meanwhile, we've got little Brooksie here to spill the beans once we get this curse off of him, right Broo – '

'Brooks NO!' called Harry.

Jeremy Brooks had managed to get up behind Ron's back and jump over to the horn above the fireplace.

It was all a blur from then on. Harry's Carpe Retractum Charm hit Ron just in time to seize and pull him away from the blast as he pushed Teddy forcefully towards the hallway. He felt a burning heat as the blast wave hit his back and threw him down to the ground. The house had been gutted. Dust and pieces of shattered glass and wood filled the air as Harry heard a police siren in the distance.

He grabbed Ron and Teddy's arms and concentrated on St Mungo's. Everything went black as the trio were pressed very hard from all directions. A moment later, the clean air of the hospital's reception filled Harry's lungs.

Sorry for being a tad late this week!

I decided I didn't like the way the chapter I've been writing was going and so I had to completely rewrite it within a couple of day XD

But now that it's behind us, I have a slightly clearer vision of what the rest of this book will look like - I hope.

If you're feeling a slight shift in the recent chapter - how it's less about mystery and more about revelations - you're correct to feel that way. I will be revealing more and more secrets progressively throughout the next few chapters until the end :)

Next time: a brand new Albus chapter (yay it's been a while!)

Hope you all enjoyed this one!

Paul

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