Disclaimers: I don't own anything that has to do with Harry Potter, except for some copies of the book, but those don't really count. I also don't own the song "Wherever You Will Go". None of this is mine. Comprenez-vous? So don't sue me.
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As per Ministry procedures, the three Aurors opened a quick speech spell connection after an hour. MacRae's low voice came through first. "Nothing here. I'm moving east." Harry nodded and said that he hadn't found anything, and was still moving north. Neville echoed them, except that he was continuing south. They broke the connection and kept walking.
They repeated the procedure twice over the next two hours, and finally decided to call it a day when the sun began to set. Apparating together, they decided to stay at a small hotel in the center of the town. Harry fished a few worn bills out of his pockets, and counted the Muggle money. He had it as leftovers from an earlier raid. There was enough to cover a night in the hotel, and one of them would Apparate back to the Ministry to get some more money the next day.
They checked in, and all three fell asleep almost immediately.
The next day, they rose with the sun. Harry was quite used to doing this by now, since Ministry work often required him to be up early. Neville had a bit more of a problem waking up properly. They had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, charging it to their room, and Harry Apparated back to the Ministry. Hermione provided him with a wad of bills, enough to pay for the room for a few days.
They split up at 8, and continued searching. Harry headed west, and bought a newspaper, bottle of water, and chocolate bar at a nearby convenience store. He found a bench, and sat down to read. While eating the Muggle chocolate (not as good as wizarding chocolate, in his opinion), he read through an article profiling the recent deaths.
The most recent one had occurred only a week before they had arrived, and the victim, a young woman, was found on the sidewalk in the morning. She was staring blankly at the sky, splayed out on the sidewalk as though something large and heavy had hit her in the chest and thrown her backward. Autopsies revealed nothing, except some slight bruising on her back where she had fallen. The author of the article blathered on about the mystery of it all, and Harry folded it up. He mused over the information. It did, indeed, sound an awful lot like the killing curse, and there was no doubt in his mind now that the deaths were the work of a former follower of Voldemort.
He left the newspaper on the bench for someone else to pick up, and threw out his candy wrapper. By now, a few people were already hurrying to work. Harry eyed all of them, trying to pick out which might be Death Eaters. Quite suddenly, he noticed a head of bright red hair. His heart leapt – until the man turned into a building nearby. It wasn't Ron. He sighed. 'I know, it was stupid to think Ron might be here..' he thought morosely to himself. He continued walking along the street, depressed.
They checked in with each other every hour, as usual, and when Harry heard Neville's stomach growling through the connection, he suggested that they take a break for lunch and discuss anything that might be remotely suspicious. The three Aurors Apparated to an alley near a cafe, and sat down at a table.
"I thought I saw Ron, once," Harry confessed. "Wasn't him though." He sighed. Neville took another bite of his chicken. "Too bad. He was a good Auror," the short man said. Harry sighed. 'He might not be dead,' his mind reasoned. 'After all, they never found his body..'
The reasonable side of his mind scowled at him. 'Come on, Harry, what are the chances that he's alive? He's been missing for over a year, and went missing in the middle of a fight. He's probably dead.' Harry hated these thoughts. He stared at his plate for a few minutes, until pushing his food away. "Not hungry anymore," he muttered.
Nothing was revealed in an afternoon of searching, but that came as no surprise to any of the three. They holed up inside their hotel room for the evening. Harry pulled out a book, so did Neville, and MacRae turned on the television. They went to sleep at ten, give or take an hour for each Auror's personal preferences.
However, their sleep was disturbed at about 3 AM, when a scuffle broke out outside the hotel. Harry was up in a flash, wand ready, when he heard a low voice hiss "Avada Kedavra." A whooshing noise, and a thud. Harry immediately shook Neville and MacRae out of their slumber, and they all dressed.
Making themselves invisible, they rushed downstairs, and skidded outside to find two men dressed in dark robes, standing over the body of the policeman Harry had talked to earlier. Harry heard Neville give a sharp gasp behind him, and immediately whirled around. "Should we get them now, or let them lead us to any others?" he asked, barely audible even to the other Aurors. MacRae considered this for a moment. "Let them lead us. If it doesn't work, we can get them then."
As soon as the Death Eaters glided off, grinning and talking quietly to each other, the three Aurors followed silently. Harry strode behind them close enough to hear them speak of 'him'. Who 'he' was, Harry had no clue, but he intended to find out. They walked for a few minutes before the Death Eaters turned sharply into an alley. Harry cursed softly as he looked in, and the men were gone. He felt MacRae and Neville come up behind him. "They must have Disapparated," Harry said in an undertone, disappointment evident in his voice.
Neville brushed past Harry and peered closely at something on the wall. "I don't think they Disapparated. I think there's a door here. How did they get in, though?" He traced the faint outline of a door, which was rapidly disappearing. MacRae knelt down and studied the wall. "Password, maybe?" Neville rubbed his chin, trying to think of a possible password. Harry pondered this. "If we can set a watch on the door, we might be able to hear the password."
MacRae grunted, and nodded. "The killings happen at night, but they're probably around during the day. I don't think they'll be around again until the morning."
Harry agreed. "If it's okay with you, I'll take the first watch. How long?"
Neville thought. "I think two hour shifts ought to be enough time during the day, but what about at night?"
Harry nodded absently, trying to calculate how much sleep they needed. "Maybe five hour shifts during the night. That's enough time for each of us to regain our energy."
They all agreed, and headed back to the hotel to get more sleep. Harry fell into his bed, completely exhausted.