With the three of them exhausted after the difficult night, Ron suggested they all skip work that day; he could get away with it easily, and Hermione and Harry had more than enough good will built up that they could take a day off without too much questioning. However, Hermione rejected the idea immediately, too reliable and responsible for that sort of thing. Harry wished he could attribute his own refusal to skip work to the same reasons, but in reality he just felt guilty about abandoning Parvati, especially since he was likely to abandon her on a larger scale soon enough.
While the trio had gotten ready to be responsible adults and go to their respective jobs after all, they had again spoken about the job offer, and Harry had felt even more like he did want to take it. But he was still conflicted, nervous about his own qualifications and unsure about giving up his work as an auror, even if only temporarily; his feelings kept wavering back and forth, as in one instant he was sure he wanted the job, the next he was sure he would tell McGonagall no. And so he did what he usually did, which was to put the thoughts out of his mind entirely and resolve to deal with them later.
As they started work much earlier than Ron did—Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes didn't even open until ten—Harry and Hermione said goodbye to Ron and headed to the Ministry, soon splitting up for their respective departments. As Parvati had promised, everything she'd compiled about the case was stacked neatly on Harry's desk when he reached his office, including Neville's response to the owl Parvati had sent him the previous afternoon. Harry had just finished reading through the material when there was a knock at his door.
"Come in."
As expected, it was Parvati that entered, and she was carrying two mugs of tea. One she deposited in front of him, which he took with a thank you, and the other she kept as she dropped down into the chair across from him. "Morning Harry. I'd ask if you're feeling better, but you look about the same as when I last saw you."
"No, I'm better." Harry assured her, warming his hands on his mug. "I just didn't get much sleep last night."
"Oh?" She asked, an eyebrow raising as she learned forward a little, and Harry knew by her expression she was about to say something ridiculous. "Why not? Was it for fun reasons?"
Definitely ridiculous, just as expected. Harry sighed and rolled his eyes, slightly flustered, but mostly amused and responding with a self-deprecating, "Why would you ever think that the reason I didn't get any sleep might be something fun?"
"I'm an optimist and I want the best for you." Parvati said immediately, sipping her tea and then nodding her head toward Harry's. "And give me your mug when you're done. For the leaves."
"Fine." Harry agreed, not even bothering to argue about how pointless he found Divination. Parvati had loved it and it was likely something of a comfort to her at this point, so he'd let her have that without protest, especially since she'd been so accommodating the day before. And on that subject, "Thanks for putting this all together, by the way. I just finished reading it."
"Oh, good, and you're welcome." Parvati said, sitting up a little straighter in an indication she was ready to be back to business. "So, since Neville said yvior does grow in the Forest, that lines up; if Greyback has been there, he could've accidentally tracked it to the crime scene."
"Yeah, he could have." Harry agreed, taking a sip of tea and willing the caffeine to kick in quickly. "But we should still check out the list of herbology and potions shops that Neville sent. You said yesterday that yvior isn't commonly used, so maybe we can get a list of who bought it recently and cover all angles." Parvati looked suddenly hesitant, and so Harry quickly continued, "I do think it's Greyback that was responsible for that attack, and so far the evidence is supporting that. I just don't want to overlook the possibility that there was some specific use planned for the yvior, rather than it being tracked in accidentally."
Parvati seemed to consider that a moment, but then nodded. "Right. You're right, we should follow the leads, if just to be thorough. Besides, he may not be working alone."
Harry nodded his agreement as well, drinking more of his tea as Parvati reached out to flip through the files. After a few moments of silence, Harry decided it was as good a time as any to broach the subject.
"Professor McGonagall offered me a job yesterday."
Parvati's head snapped up and she stared at him a moment. "Was that why she was visiting you? Not just about the Death Eaters in the Forest?"
"Yeah. I mean, they're connected, but yes." Harry affirmed. "She offered me the Defense Against the Dark Arts position, but part of what I'd be doing would be just being there in case there really are Death Eaters lurking around."
"That makes sense, I suppose." Parvati commented, not seeming entirely convinced, but soon moved on. "Are you thinking about it? The job?"
"I am." Harry admitted, and he felt a flash of guilt again. "But I don't want to just run off, especially not when we have a case like this. Catching Greyback is really important—"
"But if he's lurking in the Forbidden Forest, then you'd be in a perfect position to find that out for sure." Parvati cut him off, gaze hardening. "We can investigate this from different angles; you can be on the lookout for anything suspicious at Hogwarts and on its grounds, and I can continue following leads and going to any additional crime scenes. We fill each other in on whatever we find out, and when we're sure of where Greyback is…"
They finally hold him accountable for what he'd done. They finally get some justice for so many people he'd hurt.
"But Harry—" Parvati continued seriously, leaning forward over his desk again. "If he is in the Forest, and you find out, you have to let me know before you do anything. I want to be there."
"I know." Harry said, utterly clear on how important this was to her.
Silence fell again, but now it only felt more like he should take the offer. He wouldn't be running out on his job or his partner, he'd just be working from a different angle and teaching at the same time. It really might just be a perfect opportunity.
Harry finished the last of his tea and handed his mug to Parvati, who took and scrutinized it silently. Curious but also not about to listen to the play by play of interpreting tea leaves, Harry didn't ask and instead began to look over the crime scene photos again while he waited for her to speak. It didn't take too long.
"Hm." Parvati said, indicating it was time for Harry to look up at her again, which he did with an unimpressed expression.
"If you don't tell me I'm about to die, I'm going to be disappointed." He commented dryly, earning a glare in return.
"Your tea leaves don't say you're in mortal danger, but I'm sure I could arrange some for you." She mock-threatened, and Harry raised his hands in surrender as she continued. "What they do say is that you're going to have an unexpected visitor."
Normally, that would not be particularly ominous. Normally, he wouldn't have taken it seriously even in the slightest.
But he remembered the day before, and what he'd seen in the alley, and felt a cold jolt of fear.
"I feel like I should've just told you that you were going to die after all." Parvati commented grimly, and Harry dragged his thoughts back to the present.
"No, it's fine. Unexpected visitor, got it, hope it's someone good." Harry said, refusing to be rattled; it was a coincidence, nothing more. On both a whim and as a distraction, Harry nodded at Parvati's cup. "Want me to read yours?"
She gave him a look that was somewhere between skeptical and amused, but drained the last of her tea in one go and handed over the mug. Harry turned it around in his hands a moment, trying to remember literally anything from Divination.
"Er, you're…" He squinted at the leaves, ignoring the look on Parvati's face as she tried to hold in laughter. "That's a broken arrow, or something… Um… You're going to suffer frustration… Due to the incompetence of others."
"You're supposed to be reading the future, Harry, not the present." Parvati commented, and as soon as the words sunk in Harry gave her the flattest look he could muster.
The two spent the next half hour or so going over some ideas about how to next proceed on the case, as well as how to handle it if Harry did take the job at Hogwarts, which Parvati continued to encourage just as Ron and Hermione had. Parvati was pretty sure Padma would be available to partner with her—something about Padma's current partner going on maternity leave soon—so there would be no reason to worry about her being alone in the field, and Neville would certainly be willing to team up with Harry for anything dangerous that might need investigation at Hogwarts.
By the time Parvati left for her own office—temporarily, with the promise to return soon after choosing the first potions shop to visit—Harry was again feeling much better about the idea of accepting the job at Hogwarts. And more than that, part of him now really wanted to do it. He wanted to go back.
He'd returned to Hogwarts a few times since the Battle, but only for short periods. When Hermione had returned to finish her 7th year, Harry and Ron had visited to spend Christmas break with her and Ginny, and to catch up with the remaining professors; the three had also visited intermittently through the other years since then, usually to stop by to see Hagrid, who was always so delighted by their presence. But that was all very different than returning for an entire year, especially as a professor, and as much as Harry still wasn't sure about his own ability to teach, he was also excited. It was one of the few things in a long time that he felt like he really wanted to do.
While waiting for Parvati to return, Harry worked on organizing his disaster of a desk for the next twenty minutes until he got bored of it, then began trying to write a letter to McGonagall. He still wasn't completely sure if he was going to send it, but it didn't hurt to try to figure out what he was going to say, especially as writing formal correspondence was not a strong suit of Harry's. He'd been told this many times by Ministry officials, and yet this never managed to make him care to improve it.
Still, he did care about affording McGonagall the correct amount of respect, which meant no scrawled notes of the type that he made his coworkers decipher. So he worked on that until Parvati returned with a declaration that they'd be visiting a potions shop in South Lakeland.
"There's a potions shop in South Lakeland?" Harry asked, as soon as Parvati finished speaking, and she gave him a look.
"No, I made it up. Yes, Harry, obviously." She said with a roll of her eyes, and Harry gave a slightly sheepish grin. Fair enough, it had been a stupid question. "If I were a Death Eater looking to buy obscure potions ingredients, I'd want to go somewhere incredibly remote, so this seemed like a good first choice."
"You're right, you've convinced me." Harry agreed, shoving his attempt at a letter aside and standing up, ready to get moving. "Let's go."
South Lakeland was not somewhere Harry had been before, but Parvati had and so she was able to guide him in apparating there. It was beautiful, more so than Harry was expecting, and the remoteness of it made it very easy to hide an entire wizarding district in almost plain sight. Deep within that district was their destination.
The shop was small and old, the interior made primarily of dark wood and lit dimly by magical oil lamps, rows and rows of shelves holding jars and small boxes and various other containers. It smelled like dust and something acrid, causing Harry to wrinkle in nose a little, never having been a huge fan of the way potions ingredients somehow always combined into the weirdest scents, but aside from the dust and the weird smell the shop itself was clean and professional enough. It wasn't exactly the level of seedy that one might've found in Knockturn Alley, but still clearly off the beaten path.
It was also empty, with whoever was running it seemingly nowhere to be found. Harry briefly exchanged a glance with Parvati and they silently split up, Harry making his way toward the checkout counter as Parvati turned toward the sales floor. It wasn't a particularly large place, but the varying shelves and displays made it feel slightly maze-like, and line of sight was easily disrupted.
Harry made it to the deserted front counter and paused there for a moment before resting his hands on the counter, leaning over to look behind it just in case there might be someone hiding there. But the space was empty, and so he turned his gaze toward the door to the back room. The building was silent aside from Parvati's footsteps, and he waited again briefly until he heard her say that her side of the shop was clear, leaving the back room as the only place remaining to be searched.
Harry straightened up from the counter, reaching into his robe to find his wand. He didn't draw it just yet, as there was still a chance the shopkeeper was just in the back and hadn't heard them, but something felt off and he knew Parvati felt the same. She'd drawn near enough that they could share a brief glance before she slipped behind one of the bookshelves, hidden out of sight as Harry raised his voice and called out, "Hello? Is there anyone here?"
Silence rang out in answer, but it was too silent, artificially so. He knew someone was back there and he weighed options quickly, wanting to just throw the door open, but he decided to give one more warning first. Perhaps the shop owner was just scared, for some reason. "Auror Office! We just want to ask a few questions."
Silence fell again and Harry's nerves began to hum, intuition telling him that something was wrong, that something was going to happen. It was therefore little shock when the door suddenly slammed open and a blue flash of light streaked from the darkness toward Harry, who ducked immediately behind the counter. The wooden countertop shattered just over Harry's head, sending shards flying everywhere, and before Harry could even attempt to retaliate Parvati had cast a spell of her own. It glanced off the doorframe, the angle Parvati was at making it impossible for her to have hit anyone in the back room no matter how well she aimed, but that wasn't the point. She was providing cover, and Harry popped up out from behind the counter just long enough to cast a spell of his own.
"Stupefy!"
His aim was accurate, the spell disappearing into the darkness of the back room, but he couldn't tell if he'd actually hit anyone. He didn't want to use anything more destructive, not sure who or what might be in the room, but since he couldn't see the result the more precise and overall harmless spells had the disadvantage of additional risk. Still, when there was no movement or follow up curse, he presumed he'd hit and took the opportunity to vault over the semi-destroyed counter.
His momentum was the only reason the next curse didn't hit him, just missing his side but close enough that he could feel the heat through his robes. Parvati cast something over his shoulder, again giving him a little cover, and he took his chance to rush forward again. But then a loud crack sounded, and Harry knew immediately that whoever had attacked them had disapparated.
Parvati swore, having clearly recognized the sound as well, and joined Harry in the doorway. "Were you hit?"
"No, were you?" He asked, getting a negative in response, and he lifted his wand as he whispered lumos. A soft white light lit the room, giving Harry and Parvati a chance to see for the first time what was in there.
For the most part it appeared to be a typical back room, with a desk, chair, and several shelves and crates of additional storage for items not out on the floor. Something felt strange to Harry about the arrangement of the crates and he made a mental note to check them, but for now what was more important was that the room was empty; whoever had been in here had indeed apparated out, whether that had been one person or multiple.
"There's tea on the desk." Parvati commented, making her way over to it as Harry neared the crates, crouching to read the labels. "It's warm, so whoever was drinking it was here until recently; the owner, do you think?"
"Maybe, yeah." Harry agreed, though there was really no way to tell. It made sense to have been the owner, he supposed, but why? Why attack a pair of aurors when you're the owner of a perfectly normal potions shop?
Unless, of course, it wasn't a normal shop, which was the impression he was getting as he considered the labels. They were in Latin, which Harry could decipher approximately every third word of, but that wasn't particularly suspicious; he was much more concerned with how they were sealed, which was with what looked like red tape inscribed with runes or symbols. Harry frowned at them, trying to decide what language they were, but that was neither his area of expertise nor his job. His job was to know that there was something weird about it, indicating to him that whatever was in these crates was dangerous or illegal, or both.
"Something interesting?" Parvati asked, and Harry nodded.
"Looks like it. We should probably wait to open it, though." Harry said. As much as he would've preferred to just open them now and throw caution to the wind, he knew better and resisted the temptation.
Parvati began looking through papers on the desk, and Harry stepped out of the back room to go close the store before anyone wandered in. He shut and locked the door, flipping the sign over, and then started back toward the storeroom when something caught his eye.
It was a large book, laying on the floor behind the counter; it hadn't been there when Harry had glanced over the countertop, so it must've fallen from somewhere during the brief skirmish. He knelt down to pick it up, hefting the heavy tome into his arms and carrying it into the back room.
"Found this behind the counter." Harry explained, and Parvati moved closer so she could look at the book with him. He carefully turned it over in his arms—it really was heavy, perhaps magically so—to reveal the cover, which was made of old leather and embossed with gold leaf. The text was in English, reading plainly, Of Old Magick and Alchemy.
"Descriptive." Parvati commented, unimpressed, though Harry was much more intrigued. He knew this book.
While in school, Harry had not exactly had a reputation for an interest in academics. He'd studied as much as was necessary for big exams, and he did complete assignments with some care and effort, but he had never had a love of research for research's sake the way Hermione had. It wasn't that he found magic boring, by any means, but he was simply someone who preferred to be very hands-on and rarely had the patience or motivation for book learning.
However, in the last year or so, that had started to change a little. Harry was still definitely not reading massive history books or scouring through every page of a textbook, but he found that he enjoyed looking into information that could help with a case. And, beyond that, he'd come across an area of magic he was legitimately fascinated by, enough to have taken to researching in his spare time.
Old magic, despite having the longest history of any type of magic, was comparatively understudied. The kind of magic that Lily had done, that had protected Harry throughout his life and that he'd occasionally used himself, was not even mentioned in most books, let alone in any sort of detail. Other kinds of instinctual, natural magic were similarly rare to find discussion of in any detail, but the mystery only deepened Harry's interest, and now as an auror with both reason and authority to access obscure magical texts, he used it. But there really was only so much he could find.
This book was one that he recognized because he had found a copy of it some time ago in the Ministry's archives, but the version he was holding now felt much older and much larger than the one he'd read. Or, more accurately, partially read; he'd skipped over most of the alchemy stuff, as it went over his head and didn't interest him much, but he'd read everything in the sections about old magic and knew what had been covered. He wondered if this version might contain something the other didn't.
"This feels like too much of a coincidence." Harry remarked finally, glancing at Parvati. "We find a rare potion ingredient at a crime scene, the first shop we check that sells it is deserted except for someone who attacked us, and there's crates of unknown ingredients and a book on ancient magic and alchemy just lying around."
"You think it's a set up?" Parvati asked, her eyebrows furrowing, and she glanced around their surroundings suspiciously as if there could've been someone still hiding there. "How would they have known we were coming?"
"I don't know." It was a good question, and just as sure as he'd been of his suspicion moments before, he was suddenly much less confident. "Maybe I'm wrong, it's just…"
"No, it does feel very convenient." Parvati assured him, maybe a little too quickly. "We should consider the possibility, at least. Are you taking that?"
"The book?" He asked, following her gaze and sudden conversation shift, then nodded. "Yeah, I'll look through it. Maybe we'll get lucky and someone will have highlighted all the important parts."
"Don't let Hermione hear you talk about using a highlighter in a book like that." Parvati commented with a smirk, brushing past him to use the fireplace to make a call.
The next hour passed quickly enough, with the team arriving at the shop begin a more thorough search of the place, as well as safely look through the crates, and. A few tests confirmed that there were apparation wards, as was normal in stores, which prevented apparation into the building by anyone other than the shop's owner, a man named Eugene Womack. That made it most likely that whoever had attacked them was the owner, giving them a new suspect to work on tracking down.
The crates turned out to be full of illegal ingredients, most of which had likely been smuggled in from other countries. Notably, there wasn't a lot of any one ingredient, but rather a little of a large variety; the potioneer brought in to identify them had been perplexed but very curious, suggesting that they might've been samples acquired specifically for the purpose of experimentation. That would also explain the book Harry had found, which made him feel slightly ridiculous, because now it really did seem like he'd been being paranoid; it likely really was just coincidence that the owner of the first shop they checked happened to be dabbling in illegal potion-making, something that was not an exceptionally rare crime.
Parvati kindly didn't bring that up, allowing Harry to just focus on supervising the investigation, which really meant getting immediately distracted by reading Of Old Magick and Alchemy. It was a lot more interesting than the tediousness of cataloguing the scene, and so before Harry knew it, Parvati was tapping her finger on the page of the book he was reading to get his attention because it was time to leave.
They returned to the Ministry and Harry begrudgingly filled out a report on the investigation; he owed Parvati for handling everything from the day before, and technically the small magical skirmish meant the supervising auror should write the report anyway. But, as usual, Harry intended to make everyone regret such a rule; he filled out the paperwork with accurate and complete information, but also a decent amount of editorializing. He always had a quiet hope that the current head of the auror department—a man named Gawain Robards—would get tired of deciphering his obnoxious comments, but Robards was apparently a patient man, or else just didn't read Harry's reports at all, which could very well be the case. If Harry were in Robards' position he wouldn't read his own reports either.
But with his paperwork finally done, Harry could turn his attention toward more pressing matters. Parvati wanted to check out the residence of the potion shop's owner, Harry still needed to work on his letter to McGonagall, he was interested in continuing to look through the book, and he also needed to find another source of caffeine. The last of those should probably be first, if he didn't want a repeat of yesterday's impromptu nap.
After stealing a few tea bags and a pitcher of water from the break room and then returning to his office, Harry managed to focus on his letter to McGonagall enough to write a passable draft to be edited later. He was feeling pretty accomplished by the time Parvati returned, and they returned to South Lakeland to investigate Womack's home.
Although both were prepared for a possible confrontation, they found the small house deserted. It was disappointingly boring, with no contraband, cursed artifacts, evil magic paraphernalia, or anything else to indicate Womack would be the type to attack a pair of aurors, even if he'd been importing illegal potion ingredients. Of course it was always possible he'd returned to clear out any evidence in the time between leaving the shop and Parvati and Harry arriving here, but it just didn't feel like that to Harry. The place didn't seem hastily sanitized, just generally unremarkable, and Parvati agreed when he told her that was his suspicion.
But with the lack of anything too interesting to report about Womack's place, the pair had time on their hands to check out the next shop on Parvati's list, which went much more smoothly—and also much less interestingly—than the last. That shopkeeper was pleasant and willing to talk to them, but had little information they would find useful; no one had purchased any yvior in months, and apparently that wasn't unusual. It just wasn't an ingredient that was in particular demand.
So finally, with about an hour left in the workday, Harry and Parvati found themselves back in Harry's office, discussing the day's events and comparing notes.
"I think our big question here is if Womack has any connection with Greyback, or if we just happened to stumble upon Womack doing something illegal but unrelated, and he overreacted to us arriving." Parvati stated, which Harry nodded his agreement with.
"We'll have to look more into Womack, but I don't remember any Death Eaters by that name. However, if Greyback or whoever he's working with are using yvior for something, they may have needed the help of a potioneer, Death Eater or not."
Parvati made a hum of agreement and silence fell for a few moments, broken only by the shuffling of papers and the turning of pages. But then Parvati spoke up again, her tone purposefully false casual, and even before he'd registered her words Harry knew it was going to be a topic shift that he didn't want to deal with.
"So, do you want to talk about what happened yesterday?"
Great, he'd been correct. Harry glanced up from the book, frowning at her. "If I did, I would've done so already."
"Harry." She said, exasperated, staring back at him. "I'm serious. You don't have to tell me details, but… Was it…" She hesitated, but found her determination and continued. "Was it like what used to happen at school?"
It made sense that she would ask. It had been an open secret that Harry's nightmares and visions often had meaning behind them, especially once it had come out that Voldemort really had returned, and so of course Parvati would've thought back to their school days after what happened the day before. It was understandable that she'd want to know if there was something to be afraid of. If it was something about Voldemort.
He saw a flash of fear pass through Parvati's eyes, and he knew instantly that he'd hesitated too long.
"No." He found himself saying, almost automatically. "Nothing like that has happened in years. It was nothing, Parvati, I was just…" Tired. Hallucinating. Whatever. As he'd lamented to Hermione and Ron the day before, no explanation was actually a good one, but surely Parvati would get the idea without him having to actually say it.
But she continued to study him, clearly unconvinced by his denial, and Harry pointedly turned his own gaze back toward his book; he wasn't sure if he was relieved that she was not inclined to just believe he was crazy, or frustrated that she wouldn't take that as an answer because he didn't want to consider the alternative any longer. But either way, fine, she could stare at him until she got bored, he didn't care.
There was one again silence for another few seconds, and then Parvati sighed and sat back in her chair. "Sorry, Harry, it's just…"
"No, it's fine, I get it." Harry said, and he knew he should stop there, but words just continued to pour out. "I know I have a reputation for being an early warning detection system for evil wizards, but Voldemort is dead. He's dead, and he's not coming back." His tone was colder than he meant it to be, harsher, and it might've worked on someone who hadn't grown up with him. But he knew instantly that she could hear the defensiveness he hadn't meant to let slip, because he could hear it himself.
Tension hung for several seconds, and Harry kept his gaze firmly on his book. Finally, after what felt like minutes, Parvati let the topic go and soon said goodbye to him for the day, taking her notes and heading back to her own office. When she was gone, Harry let his head drop onto the desk, giving a frustrated sigh. At least, he supposed, now he was taken too seriously, rather than not seriously enough.