The canonical characters from the "Harry Potter" books and movies belong to Joanne K. Rowling, as does the Wizarding World and all associated concepts. Ms. Rowling is utterly unaware that I or my stories exist, and is probably happier for it. This story is written to serve as nothing more than an outlet for one of my hobbies. I'm doing it because I felt like it and am not planning to realize any sort of monetary award for it.
The plot for "Harry Potter & The Search For Peace" is mine.
Harry and Ron entered the Auror department to find the senior Aurors assembled together. They seemed to be welcoming someone back into the department. The trainees were all assembled together looking at their seniors with trepidation. The two friends shared a look and walked towards their Head Auror, who had just separated from the group.
"John Dawlish is back in the department," Robards told them. Ron opened his mouth to ask something but Robards beat him to it. "He had been under the Imperius Curse during the war. Finally, has been declared fit by the Healers." They nodded. "Stay away from him, Potter," Robards added as an afterthought.
Harry looked at his senior questioningly. "Dawlish has been in the department since long but his list of achievements is not very big. You, Potter, have joined the department with a list of achievements known to the entire Wizarding World," Robards explained, "You are an excellent dueller and a very good leader. You have beaten Voldemort's Imperius. Dawlish is not going to be happy with you."
Harry nodded, absorbing the words. He heard Robards asking Ron if he could beat the Imperius. "Never been under one," Ron told him, "But I was going through a book on Mind Arts. Occlumency should help me achieve that." Robards looked thoughtful at this and walked to talk to Auror Savage. Harry followed Ron to their friends and fellow trainees and briefed them of the news. Suddenly, Robards voice echoed in the area, "All senior and trainee aurors to assemble in Conference Room."
Ginny looked at the students assembled in front of her. Today was the tryout for the Gryffindor Quidditch team and it seemed to her as if half of Gryffindor had assembled on the pitch. She took a deep breath and looked at the stands. Hermione was supposed to join her after meeting McGonagall but there was no sign of her. Ginny wondered what had happened.
"Everyone who is not a Gryffindor please leave." Ginny watched a handful of people leaving. She drew a deep breath and spoke again, "Hello everyone. Thank you for coming. This year, I have decided that we will have a reserve team also. So, we will need six chasers, two keepers, four beaters and two seekers." She smiled at the excited murmurs.
"I prefer playing as a chaser but I can play as a seeker too. I will keep my options open for now." Building the team this year was going to be a difficult task. She didn't expect anyone to have Harry's talent in seeking. Ron too had been a good Keeper when he was not nervous. She huffed and divided the aspirants into groups. "Beaters to my right. Seekers to my left. Chasers and Keepers in front of me."
The group shuffled to follow her words. There were ten Beater aspirants and only four for Seekers. The group that stood in front of her was quite large; she could see Demelza standing amongst them. She told the Chasers and Keepers group to fly around the pitch. Three laps later, she had to ask five people to leave the pitch; they did not have much control on their broom. The same process was repeated for Beaters and Seekers – the latter was a good group but two Beater aspirants had to leave.
Now was the time for real practice. Ginny asked the Seekers to fly around and released the Snitch. It was the same one Dumbledore had given Harry – the one Harry had caught in his first Quidditch match. Ten minutes later, Dennis Creevey had caught the Snitch. Ginny asked him to go back to the ground and released the Snitch again. Another twenty minutes and the Snitch was caught again by Lucy Cooper, a second-year student. Ginny released a sigh of relief. The two of them were good and would allow her to play as Chaser.
Next were the Chasers and Keepers. She had them play the game without the Beaters and Bludgers. Three more – two Chasers and a Keeper – had to leave the pitch. Ginny then called the Beaters up and released the Bludgers. She shuffled the teams and after many games, Ginny had her team ready.
Demelza Robins had found her way back in the team. She and Ginny would play as Chasers along with Dave Harris, a fourth year. The reserve Chasers were – Lesley Smith, Blake Mason and Aaron Wagner. Jimmy Peakes and Ritchie Coote had returned to the team as Beaters with Stuart and Lesley Peterson as reserves. Dennis got the Seeker position with Lucy Barnaby as the reserve.
With the tryouts over, Ginny left the pitch with a mission in mind. She had to find Hermione and know what stopped her from coming to watch the tryouts.
"Why couldn't he teach me Occlumency?" Harry asked Ron as they sat in the conference room listening to Auror Savage explain the concept to seniors and trainees. His method of explaining was much better than Snape's. Harry believed that Savage could actually teach him the mind art.
"Has anyone of you ever tried to do anything like this?" Savage asked, prompting Harry and Ron to raise their hands. Savage clapped excitedly and asked them to share their experience. "What is your peaceful place?" he asked them. It was Hogwarts for Harry and Burrow for Ron.
"Excellent. Now let's take Potter's example as all of us are familiar with Hogwarts. Your mind is like a container which can take any shape you want. Potter wants it to be like Hogwarts. So first he would need to give that shape to his mind. Every detail needs to be taken care of. The more efforts you put in creating the shape, the stronger it shall be. Then you will add memories to it."
"How do we do that?" Harry asked before he could stop himself.
Savage didn't mind, though Dawlish seemed irritated with the entire exercise. Harry wondered whether it was because Savage had already announced that this will help in fighting the Imperius or Dawlish just liked scowling.
"You have to review every memory of yours. You will need to spend a lot of time inside your mind, review every memory and then decide where it should go. You can build shelves, rooms or anything to store memories. You need to decide how you will group the memories. Once you have done this, you build doors to stop others from viewing them. In your case Potter, you can protect your Hogwarts with strong walls or maybe Giants or maybe any other creature. Or anything that you think will protect you."
Harry absorbed all of this. It seemed quite good in theory. He knew that this was going to take a lot of time but for the first time since many years, Harry felt excited to learn something new (apart from the Animagus project).
"Sir, how will we remember all our memories?" Harry heard Lavender Brown ask.
"Good question. Very good question," Savage clapped his hands, "When you reach the state of meditation, you are actually in your subconscious mind, which remembers everything. This also means that you will have to visit your worst memories." Harry heard Ron groan next to him. Be prepared for it. Keep chocolate nearby. It always helps."
This was the price for learning the mind art, a revisit from Voldemort. Savage gave them some more instructions and dismissed the group, telling them to approach him if they needed assistance.
Ginny rushed to her dormitory and rummaged through her trunk in search of the Marauder's Map. Harry had loaned it to her for this year after she had promised that she would protect it more than anything else. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good," Ginny muttered these words and searched for Hermione but could not find her. Her heart filled with fear before she remembered Harry telling her that the map did not show Shrieking Shack or any person inside the Room of Requirements.
Ginny hurried to the corridor on the seventh floor. She had spent enough time with Neville and Luna in the last year, trying to figure out how the room actually worked. She paced around the corridor, thinking about Hermione. It was not difficult; Hermione was all she could think about right now. The door appeared. She opened it with trepidation and found Hermione.
Uh oh!
Ginny had witnessed Hermione's anger numerous times in the past years. She had heard enough from Ron and seen enough in the DA to know how powerful she was. But this Hermione seemed more dangerous than the original one. There were tear marks on her face and her wand was casting hexes towards a practice dummy the Room had provided her. The dummy was in a miserable condition; Ginny was glad it was not a living thing.
Casting a shield with her wand, the youngest Weasley moved forward. Hermione turned around on her heels, wand ready to cast a hex but then relaxed. She lowered her wand, prompting Ginny to drop the shield. "What happened?" she asked the older girl.
Hermione looked at her, fresh tears flowing out of her eyes. "You know about the book I am writing about the war? I had wanted to start it from Halloween 1981. When I wrote to Harry asking for permission, he told me he would leave his memory with McGonagall." And just like that, Ginny knew what was wrong.
"Harry was so small, Ginny. His father was making puffs of coloured smoke erupt from his wand. His mother was there. Harry was so happy, Ginny. I have never seen him so happy. Not even when he is with you or Teddy. Not since his first Quidditch Match in our first year. And just like that, it all ended. Voldemort killed them so easily; just one curse and it was all over. Lily Potter, she was begging for her son's life. Oh Merlin, Diffindo."
The last words were uttered with Hermione's wand pointed at the dummy. The thing was divided into two pieces. But this time, Ginny did not feel bad for it. She wished she could cast the same curse at Voldemort or Pettigrew. She wished she could divide their bodies into two parts. She wished.
Harry entered the Muggle restaurant, Ron following him with wonder and nervousness. Dudley had written him twice since his first letter on Harry's birthday, requesting a meeting. Harry had not been very sure but had been convinced by Ginny. I am not asking you to forgive but if he is willing to try, give him a chance. And so, Harry was here to meet his cousin. Ron had come because there was no way he could let Harry meet his idiotic cousin alone.
Harry could see Dudley waving his hand at them, gesturing them to join him. The two friends walked towards him. It was a secluded area; Harry wondered off hand if Dudley did not wish to be seen with him. But he was proven wrong when Dudley spoke. "I choose a secluded table so that we could talk about your world. You have some law of secrecy, no?" Harry nodded. "How do you know?" Ron asked curiously. Dudley smiled but was saved from answering as the waiter approached them for order. Harry and Dudley settled for pizza, Harry promising Ron that he would love it. And love it he did. Ron almost moaned when he took the first bite.
When they were alone on their table, Harry took his wand and muttered, "Muffliato." Dudley raised his eyebrows and Harry explained the purpose of the charm. "You are allowed that?" Dudley asked. "We are of age now," Harry answered. His cousin nodded.
"So how is Auror work going on?" Dudley asked. Harry and Ron shared a look. How did he know? "It was in the Daily Prophet. I saw at Mrs. Figg's. You both joined Aurors and Hermione was going back to Hogwarts."
"Yeah. It's going quite well. We are still trainees, though," Harry answered.
"And how is your brother, George? After Fred's death…" This time the question was directed towards Ron. Ron nodded as if saying all was well.
"You know quite a lot about our world?" Harry asked. "I am surprised your parents haven't locked you up or written to me to blame me for the change." Dudley laughed humourlessly.
"They don't know. When we were in hiding, there was one more family with us. Robins. Demelza said you know her," Dudley looked at the friends. They nodded. "Demelza had trace on her so they couldn't do any magic. So, Mom and Dad didn't know they were magical. I spent a lot of time with them – reading Quibbler, listening to Potterwatch." Ron beamed at this. He had loved that show.
"She told me what she knew about you. She told me about Cedric. Harry, I am sorry. I…I was horrible to you. Yet you saved my life. I am so sorry, Harry." Harry smiled and nodded. He could see Dudley was trying to change.
"So what is the scene with you and Demelza?" Dudley turned red, causing Harry and Ron to chuckle and pull his leg. And that night, for the first time Harry enjoyed with his cousin.