Chapter 4
Disclaimer" I do not own Harry Potter or NCIS or any of their characters.
Hermione looked exhausted when she returned next morning. "Harry you need to see a healer for a flushing potion and to ask for a scan for any long term potions especially love potions" she said.
"Hermione?" Harry asked concerned.
"These two are love potions, and this one is a fertility potion and this last one is a lust potion. This combination is exactly what I would use if I wanted to trap someone into marrying me for the fame or the money and didn't care about their reaction and wasn't afraid of being caught" Hermione said bluntly
"This is a low grade love potion, it'll generate feelings that will last for a couple of months but then loses its effectiveness over time no matter how high the dose, which could explain why you used to let Ginny have her way all the time and now the two of you fight" Hermione said. "This one is a mild attraction potion, nothing illegal, but it's keyed to Ron so I think it was meant for me, leftover from when the Weasleys were living here at the start of the war" she added pointing to a dusty vial.
"That doesn't make a whole lot of sense Hermione" Harry said. "Ginny wouldn't let me feel her up let alone come close to having sex."
"I expect she was waiting for a sign the fertility potion was working so she could take one too and let you ravish her" Hermione said thoughtfully.
"That explains why Ginny loves to come and cook me breakfast nearly every weekend even though I've asked her not to because it upsets Kreacher and Winky" Harry added nodding. "But I don't think I need to be checked, Ginny's a lousy cook I've been vanishing most of the food she makes me and just pretending to have eaten it for months."
Hermione burst out laughing. "Ginny's actually quite a good cook. This potion has a faint mushroom taste" she explained.
"And since our time in the tent I hate mushrooms" Harry laughed too.
"Get the test done anyway Harry. They'll test your hair and you'll have proof if you've been potioned in the last six months or so" Hermione suggested.
In the end Harry did as Hermione suggested and got proof that he had indeed been potioned. In fact because his hair had never required cutting, because Harry was using his minor metamorphmagus talent to keep it the desired length, the healers were able to get several years' worth of potion use history from him proving that not only had he been potioned over the last year but in his sixth year at Hogwarts as well. He put copies of the documentation along with a couple of strands of hair in his Gringotts' vault and packaged up the original ready to file with the Aurors if it happened again. He knew that even the accusation would irrevocably harm the whole family and he wasn't willing to do that if he didn't have to do it to keep himself safe.
-o0o-
Needless to say Ginny did not take well to the broken engagement. She sent him howlers almost hourly alternately berating him and begging him to come back and renegotiate their betrothal. Molly also sent several haranguing him for his ingratitude breaking the engagement after she'd treated him like a son.
When the daily prophet arrived with the news of his broken engagement headlining the front page he was inundated by letters, howlers from most of the Weasleys and Ginny's friends, and offers of 'comfort' from various women along with betrothal contract offers from numerous heads of pureblood houses. Harry was amused to see some of the marriage contracts were for the same girls who had sent him the howlers. He looked through the contract offers eliminating anyone who supported Voldemort and the pureblood cause, anyone who didn't have a father or brother living, and the contracts that demanded control of his houses be passed to his pureblood wife or any contracts where the bride was more than 10 years older than him or still a child. Unfortunately, that was all of them and Harry sighed. He wondered if he would have better luck meeting a woman who met his requirements overseas where Voldemort hadn't had as much of an impact. Gabriella had invited him to visit her in France but she still had a crush on the boy who lived, and didn't have any brother's either.
The knowledge that he'd been dosed long term with love and lust potions geared to Ginny and the fact that he really hadn't been attracted to any other woman in years strengthened Harry's suspicions that he might be gay. Harry sighed, he'd asked Ron and Hermione to help him compile a list of possible witches who met all of the criteria he wanted but none of them particularly appealed to him and he didn't have the heart to begin courting any of them.
-o0o-
It was several days before Harry was willing to try masturbating again after it hurt so much last time. Part of him wanted to put it off even longer, he didn't want to risk the agony of having his balls feel like he'd set them on fire again, but he was also still a teenage boy who couldn't imagine life without being able relieve stress and pleasure that way ever again and was already getting antsy. So he decided to give it a try opening the magazine to a photo spread that looked nothing like Malfoy hoping that it wasn't the other models similarity to his old school rival that had turned him on last time. It wasn't. He opened the magazine the sales clerk had recommended to him blushing when he saw the photos. This wasn't just nude pictures but a gay magazine. After he got over his embarrassment he realised he was seriously turned on by the sight of two young men kissing and hugging. They didn't make him feel vaguely uneasy the way seeing a guy snog a girl did. He was definitely gay.
He groaned as he came. It did hurt a bit but not enough to totally kill his enjoyment and as he came down from the euphoria he felt a slight ache in his testicles but nothing like the debilitating pain last time. Smiling in relief he ignored the pain relieving potions that would knock him out in favour of a couple of paracetamol. If he was moving to the muggle world it was time to start living like a muggle again, he decided rolling over to sleep.
-o0o-
Harry returned to work the next day and was annoyed to find Ginny Weasley waiting at his desk.
"Who let her in?" he asked his fellow Aurors.
"I did. She said she was your fiancé" one of the new Auror trainees said.
"And did you supervise her while she was at my desk?" Harry asked coldly.
"Yes I could see her from my desk, she's your fiancé what's the problem?" asked the trainee nervously.
"I don't have a fiancé as everyone who's seen the front page of 'The Prophet', 'The Quibbler', 'Witch Weekly' or any other publication in the wizarding press would know. The end of our engagement was front page news all last week. Secondly, it wouldn't matter who she was, civilians, even wives are not permitted back in the offices" Harry said furiously. "Thirdly by leaving her unsupervised you have compromised any investigations I might have had information about on my desk which might have resulted in a violent criminal being released to hurt more victims, and if that happened the new victims' injuries would have been your fault."
"I'm sorry… I didn't realise…" the trainee stammered upset at being scolded by his idol.
"Get him out of here" Harry said shaking his head. "And make him reread the rulebook."
He approached his desk grateful that after a week away all his cases had been reassigned and his desk cleared.
"Hello Harry" Ginny said flirtatiously.
"What are you doing here Miss Weasley?" Harry asked keeping his distance.
"I came to finalise the wedding arrangements. You need to meet with Daddy to sign the new betrothal agreement and the final fitting for your robes is on Thursday and I've booked you a haircut the Tuesday before the wedding" Ginny declared bossily as if reinstating the betrothal was a foregone conclusion.
"Ginny I'm not going to marry you. Our betrothal agreement was declared null and void for good reason and that has been accepted by your head of house" Harry said patiently. "Now I have work to do Ginny, can I have someone show you out" Harry said firmly taking her arm and leading her towards the front entrance.
"You can't just kick me out. I'm your fiancé" Ginny yelled.
"You are not and never again will be my fiancé." Harry repeated.
"I will sue you for breach of promise" Ginny shrieked.
"Ginny your father agreed to void the contract" Harry said tiredly. "Now if you won't leave peacefully I will have you thrown out"
Harry walked her to the entrance and then stood and made a statement. "This woman is not my fiancé, she is not to be allowed entrance to the Auror offices again, nor am I to be called if she asks for me."
"Harry" Ginny whined. "You know this is only a temporary problem we'll sort it out in time for the wedding."
"I'm not going to change my mind Ginny, our engagement and our relationship is over" Harry said gesturing for a pair of trainees to escort her from the office before tiredly walking away from her.
He attempted to get back into the routine of working and was allocated some new cases and brought up to speed on one of the cases he'd been working on before being cursed. He was visited during the day by Percy who took offence at the broken betrothal. "How could you do this to our family? Don't you know the harm it will do to all our reputations?" Percy demanded.
"It had nothing to do with your family. The betrothal was voided by both Heads of house for irreconcilable differences. There was no blame laid on the Weasley family" Harry argued.
"It's in all the papers that Ginny was rejected by the boy-who-lived. Everyone will think she's done something wrong" Percy declared.
"The only thing potentially causing any damage to the respect of your family is Ginny's refusal to accept the end of our relationship without making a scene" Harry retorted getting to his feet. "And to be honest, she's showing everyone exactly why I don't want to marry her. Between her temper and her inability to listen to anything that disagrees with what Ginny wants, anyone married to your sister would be miserable."
Mrs Weasley accosted him when he was in Diagon Alley investigating a robbery the next day.
"Mrs Weasley please, I'm working. I need to interview the witnesses" Harry stated.
"Harry Potter don't you walk away from me" Molly screeched clutching his jacket.
"Mrs Weasley you're preventing me from doing my job. Please let go of me" Harry asked politely.
"Want me to arrest her" the trainee asked enthusiastically.
Harry shook his head minutely at the trainee. "Mrs Weasley release my arm now and let me complete my investigation or I will be forced to let Auror Williams arrest you" he said firmly.
"Don't you dare threaten me Harry Potter" Molly screeched.
"I'm not threatening you. You are interfering with an official auror investigation. If you do not cease to do so after now being warned twice I won't have any choice but to have you arrested" Harry said firmly. "And if the suspect gets away as a result of your accosting me then you will be charged as an accessory for his crimes."
-o0o-
Knowing the speed of gossip in the Auror corps, Harry was not surprised when after handing in his report of the afternoons interviews he was called in to speak with his boss.
"Auror Potter, your personal life got in the way of an investigation today, and it was just sheer luck no investigations were compromised yesterday. What are you going to do about it?" Senior Auror Robbards asked.
"With all due respect sir what happened with Ginny being at my desk was in no way my fault. I'm not the one who let her back there. It was a breach of security by a trainee. I've made the error very clear to all of them and I trust that they won't do it again. And nothing's going to satisfy Molly Weasley except me marrying her daughter which isn't going to happen. Even then that wouldn't prevent a similar situation from occurring next time Ginny and I had a major disagreement' Harry said frustrated.
Robbards chuckled "She would be a mother-in-law to reckon with that's for sure. I don't blame you for backing out of that situation."
"Ginny is frighteningly like her" Harry replied.
"Then why did it take you so long to come to your senses? I always thought you were smarter than that Potter" Robbards said offering him a drink.
"Off the record sir?" Harry asked nonverbally declining the drink.
"Sure if that's the way you want it" Robbards said warily.
"I have long term evidence of love potions in my system" Harry stated.
"Am I to take it you don't want to press charges?" Robbards asked surprised.
"No Sir, I'm the head of a most noble and most ancient house, charges of this nature would ruin the whole family" Harry replied. "Her brothers don't deserve that."
"Then that's your leverage to get the Weasley woman to leave you alone" Robbards said smiling cunningly.
"Thanks for the suggestion. I'll talk to Arthur Weasley about it. Hopefully he can control his wife and daughter. But I don't have any proof who gave me the potions." Harry said doubtfully.
"Just the threat of an investigation should be enough to make any sane person back off" Robbards reassured him.
"That's the problem I'm not entirely sure Ginny is sane when it comes to me" Harry said dryly.
"If you can't get them to back off them maybe you should consider an overseas posting" Robbards suggested. "You're muggle raised aren't you? Have you worked with MI-7 before? They want someone in Washington DC to liaise with the various federal agencies there. It's only part time but this might be good for you to consider anyway he said handing Harry an appointment card. I want you to meet with these people tomorrow, there'll be some training required but they have positions for Aurors here in Britain and overseas. This could be a good step for you Potter."
"I've done quite a bit of work for them on and off over the past two years. Thank you sir." Harry said recognising the dismissal. He returned to his desk and struggled with writing to Arthur Weasley. After several attempts he realised he didn't want to commit this to parchment and went to speak to the head of the department of misuse of muggle artefacts.
-o0o-
"Have you got a minute Arthur?" he asked diffidently standing in the doorway. He hated to hurt the man who'd treated him like a son for so many years and he'd be devastated if he found out Arthur had known about the love potions.
"Harry come on in" Arthur said cheerfully. "How's your first couple of days back at work?"
"I wish I could say they were peaceful but the truth is I came close to having to officially caution two Weasleys" Harry replied hesitantly.
"What did the twins do? I thought they'd grown out of such shenanigans" Arthur said shaking his head ruefully.
"Not Fred and George, unfortunately, Ginny and Molly" Harry corrected.
"What happened?" Arthur said looking far more serious.
Harry pulled out his wand gesturing to the door, then with Arthur's permission cast several locking and anti-eavesdropping charms. "Ginny manipulated a trainee into leaving her alone at my desk using false pretences. If I hadn't been off sick for long enough to have my cases reassigned then she would have compromised several investigations and I would have had no choice but to have her arrested so she could be questioned under veritaserum and obliviated of any sensitive information. Then Molly accosted me in Diagon Alley while I was interviewing witnesses. I warned her several times that I was on official business but one of the trainees threatened to arrest her before she would let me go" Harry explained. "Robbards is furious and he's ordered they will be arrested next time they accost me."
"I'm sorry Harry. I'll talk to them both but I don't honestly know how much good it will do. Are you absolutely sure you cannot marry Ginny?"
"Yes I'm sure. There's something else you need to know. While I was at St Mungo's after being injured the healers did a long term potion scan on my hair. Apparently I've been exposed to large doses of a level two love potion over the last eighteen months and once before a couple of years ago for several months, as well as lust and fertility potions recently" Harry said. "I'm not trying to threaten you Arthur but if they keep harassing me to reinstate the betrothal then eventually they will do something where I'll have no choice but to arrest them and it will come out." He looked at his former future father-in-law beseechingly, begging him to understand and reign in his family.
"No doubt you could arrest them over this already? If you had evidence" Arthur said.
"I have enough evidence" Harry confirmed. "The love potions were geared to Ginny both times, and she doesn't have the skill to brew them by herself" Harry said tiredly. "I have also sent Hermione to have the tests too. With the length of her hair they will be able to go all the way back to her joining our world at eleven. If they find anything at all I will prosecute. I know you need to protect your family Arthur but I will protect myself if I need to and Hermione is family to me."
Arthur sighed "I know Harry and I can't blame you. I will talk with them tonight and make sure they understand the consequences of attacking you again."
"Thanks Arthur" Harry said making his exit.
-o0o-
Arthur called a family meeting as soon as she arrived home.
"What's the matter dear? Surely it can wait dinner's almost ready" Molly said.
"No it cannot wait, cast a stasis charm and come sit down" Arthur said. He went to the floo and called for Bill, Percy and the Twins to come through before collecting Ron and Ginny from their rooms.
"I received an unofficial complaint from the Aurors this afternoon" Arthur said.
"We didn't do it" the twins chimed in unison.
"What's going on Dad? Is there a threat against one of us?" Bill asked.
"No it seems both Ginevra and Molly broke the law to harass Lord Potter today, both were almost arrested for their actions by the Aurors. Harry prevented the arrests this time but it was made very clear to me that if they do it again he won't be allowed to intervene and they will be arrested and questioned under veritaserum to ascertain their motives. If that happens then they will also be asked about the use of love potions as Harry underwent a long term potion use scan when he was injured last week and the results were quite disturbing" Arthur said firmly.
"Is that why he broke the engagement?" Bill asked frowning.
"He didn't say but the timing suggests you're right" Arthur replied.
"How could you do such a thing?" Bill demanded turning to his little sister.
"You are to leave Harry alone while he's working. No visits, no approaching him in the street and no more howlers" Arthur said firmly. "Promise me now Ginny"
"You can't stop me from visiting my fiancé. We're getting married in less than three weeks and there's still so much to do" Ginny replied.
"You haven't cancelled the wedding?" Arthur asked his wife. "The later you leave the cancellations the less of your deposits you will get back."
"We don't need to cancel the wedding this is all just a misunderstanding" Molly said determinedly.
Arthur sighed "Start cancelling the arrangements in the morning" he ordered. "I spoke to Harry today and I'm very sure he will not be dating Ginny again anytime soon let alone thinking about marrying her." He got up and went out to his shed needing a break.
"Don't worry Gin" Fred said "Harry's our business partner. We'll soon sort him out."
"He's pretty angry about how you reacted when he was hurt last week Gin. I can't say I blame him for getting cold feet about marrying a witch who didn't even care enough to ask him if he was alright when she found out he'd been cursed badly enough to be given two week's medical leave" Ron said. "He might come round eventually if you pick up your game. You're probably going to regret having to renegotiate the contract though."
"It was Harry that cancelled the initial contract he's the one who should be penalised in the new one" Percy stated.
"Yeah except it's Ginny that wants him to reconsider. He's not trying to renegotiate the contract" Ron said.
"He's said quite clearly to several people that he doesn't want a new contract with Ginny. And if he's telling the truth about the potions exposure you can bet the Aurors will investigate whether he's acting of his own free will if he reinstates his engagement" Hermione warned.
A/N: Thank you to ToTheStarButPickMagic, charm13insomnia, Bloody Gale Reaper, mithrilandtj, Rori Potter, Fae0306, Ace Trainer Jessie, Locket1, DS2010, Silvermane1, Hexal, BadassFanKickass, seiseme, yng2bhdls, linzi, chocoholic18, beulah2013, shadow7564, himeichigo69, Elina00, Nordens, Firehedgehog, kyzhart, mexchica228, 1megastar1, carverslily, Cyansan, evilelf25, LuckyNumber1, Sbgchan, dontfrogget, acherongoddess, terfa, , SerenityMoonlight, sherrilynn, Extra-ToTheStarButPickMagic, puparoo13, WhiteRose38, cldiva, Alec McDowell, Is-this-supposed-to-be-clever, FallenRoyal, Kamuitachi, lunarprincess87, .90, Malicia88, SueSmith52, everyread123, Zaurelie, Goddess Selene, Katerina-Walker, smd3926, Shire Fey and ChrisFender for your support.
