Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and Co. J.K. Rowling does.
Summary: After one very eventful night ten years ago, Voldemort was destroyed and Harry disappeared. Where did he go? What happened that night? Only one man knows the answer: a teacher named James, aka Harry. But what will he do now that he has faced the two people who were once his best friends?
Author's note: Uh, regarding reviews...I love them, but posting the same review over and over again is a bit...excessive...thank you, though, for your enthusiasm and, don't worry, I'll keep posting as often as I can.
Chapter 16: 100 Éclairs and File Cabinets
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The photographers were gone from Peter's Bakery by noon the next day, which was a relief for James. He walked into the bakery that afternoon without seeing one photographer.
"Hello everybody!" shouted James as he burst into the kitchen of the bakery.
"My, aren't we happier today?" asked Emma.
"Well...yes, I think I am feeling better," said James. "And would you like to know why?"
"Why?"
"Because we get to make a bizillion éclairs today!"
Emma grinned, which made Jacob groan.
"That means I get to put the chocolate sauce on!" shouted Emma happily.
"On the éclairs or Jacob?" asked Peter.
"Both both both!" sang Emma. She started dancing around the kitchen singing a song she made up. "I'm putting choc-o-late on éclairs and My Cobbie! La la la!"
James shook his head, laughing. "What did she have for breakfast?"
"Beats me," answered Peter, "But, boy, could I use some of her energy." Peter rubbed his hands together. "Well, should we start with the festivities?"
"What about Sarah?"
"She'll be here around 3:00."
"Okay. Yes, then. Let's start the baking."
Emma skipped around the kitchen pulling out ingredients from cabinets and putting them on the counter. Peter directed how much of everything was to be used. Jacob and James poured and mixed the ingredients, trying as hard as possible to keep Emma occupied with something small and harmless. She was stirring pastry batter at the moment.
And in no time, it seemed, the trio had finished preparing all the batters and creams and sauces, and Sarah had arrived.
The group got started on the assembling of the éclairs.
"I call the chocolate sauce!" shouted Emma.
"Oh no you don't!" said Sarah. "Last time you put way too much sauce on. There is no way you are going to do that again!"
"Not fair! I like putting chocolate sauce on the éclairs. Are you going to deny me the job of pouring the sauce? Of putting the most tastetiest stuff ever on the best pastries ever?" Emma raised her voice. "Are you saying, Sarah, that you would deny me the pleasure-- no, the privilege-- of pouring the only sauce that makes me happy? That you would deny me my constitutional right to happiness?"
"Psst, Emma," whispered James, "You're in Canada, not America."
"It doesn't matter!" yelled Emma shrilly. "Sarah is denying me happiness itself!"
Sarah rubbed her forehead. "Fine, pour the sauce on. Just do it properly. And bring the volume down a few decibels, okay?"
"Thank you Sarah," said Emma sweetly.
"Whatever."
With that, the group began putting together the éclairs under Peter's direction. By 7:00, all one hundred éclairs were finished.
Everyone was tired from all the baking, so one by one, each person left to go home, wishing Peter good luck with his éclairs tomorrow at the wedding.
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"You two know what to do, right?" asked Hermione. They were outside the Ministry building and had just apparated over.
"Of course we do," answered Jack.
Emily nodded in agreement. "We've been practicing," she said proudly.
"I know," said Hermione, rolling her eyes, "You've been practicing for six years now, both of you. Now, you must remember not to give the game away by laughing. Are you guys ready?"
Jack and Emily nodded.
"Let's go."
Hermione walked into the Ministry building with an air of authority. She brushed by the receptionist with Jack and Emily in tow.
"Wait!" shouted the receptionist feebly, "You need a special pass to be in the building...oh never mind," she added, when she saw that Hermione was still walking forward determinedly and paying no attention.
Hermione recalled from her former Auror days the layout of the Ministry building with surprising accuracy. Without getting lost once, she strode right up to the manager's secretary of the Files of Old and New Cases section.
"Good morning," said Hermione, "I'm Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley's wife. I made an appointment Wednesday morning to see the manager, Mr. Preese, at 10:00." The secretary started ruffling through papers while Hermione kept talking. "I'm here to access some files for a presentation I am doing for a conference. I am also here to do some research for Professor Albus Dumbledore. I assume Mr. Preese can show me where to find these files?"
The secretary was still flipping through papers. "Uh, yes, he will be right with you, ma'm. Er, what was your name again?"
Hermione frowned and sighed exasperatedly, which made the secretary wince. "My name is Hermione Granger."
"Yes, yes. Thank you. Mr. Preese will be right with you."
Jack and Emily smiled proudly at their mother as the secretary hurriedly got up and hesitatingly knocked on a wooden door. The door opened and Mr. Preese's stuck his head out.
Mr. Preese was a small, nervous man. He was in charge of filing all the records of past cases that the Ministry had dealt with. He had no importance except making sure that only people with appointments looked at the files they specifically requested ahead of time.
"Mr. Preese?" said the secretary. "A Hermione Granger is here to see you. She has a 10:00 appointment."
"I thought I didn't have a morning appointment today."
The secretary looked to see if Hermione was listening. "I-- I must have misplaced it, Mr. Preese. She says it's for a conference and Professor Dumbledore."
Mr. Preese came out of his office after hearing the name Dumbledore.
"Professor Dumbledore, she says? Well, I guess it's important."
Mr. Preese walked over to Hermione. "What were the files did you say you wanted to look at?"
"I clearly explained this over the phone," said Hermione, annoyed. "I'm here to look at the files from last month's trial of Antonio Bertinelli, leader of the Sicilian mafia in England, who was caught in Diagon Alley. I also need to look up the trials of some of Antonio Bertinelli's family members that have been happening throughout this month."
Mr. Preese gulped, clearly unnerved by Hermione's tone of voice. "Why, yes, of course, Ms. Granger. Just follow me. Right this way."
He led Hermione, Jack, and Emily to a room filled with file cabinets.
Mr. Preese handed Hermione a quill and some paper. "You may take notes on the files, but you cannot make any copies." He pointed to a drawer. "This is the drawer for the Bertinelli trial." He pointed to another. "This drawer has his family trials that are older than ten years. This drawer has Bertinelli family trials from one to ten years ago. This drawer has the family trials that took place over a month ago but less than a year ago."
Mr. Preese expanded his arms to include a whole section of drawers. "And these drawers have every case that has involved the Ministry in the last month. The family trials you are looking for can be found under Bertinelli or Capella. Capella is Antonio Bertinelli's mother's side of the family."
"Thank you," said Hermione. "It all seems to be in good order."
Mr. Preese went up to the first drawer he had pointed to and started pulling out files. "I'll stay here to help you with your search. Now, all these files are relevant to the trial and have been written up by the Ministry, and these are the newspaper clippings from the Daily Prophet, and these are the newspaper clippings from papers in America, and these are from Asia, and these are from other European countries besides England, and these are clippings from South America..."
Hermione turned around and winked at her kids, while Mr. Preese kept talking. Right on cue, Jack and Emily started bickering.
"Stop hitting me!" said Jack.
"I'm not hitting you!" answered Emily.
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
Jack's and Emily's voices became louder and louder until it was a full-fledged war.
Emily ran around in circles taunting Jack, and then hid behind Mr. Preese when Jack came near.
"You're just a big ugly head!" yelled Emily.
Jack stomped over towards Emily. She squealed and clung to Mr. Preese's ankles.
"Yeah? Well at least I'm not some sissy snake headed girl!" retorted Jack.
Jack chased Emily around Mr. Preese. Mr. Preese ended up tripping and falling. Files and papers were spilled everywhere.
"Oh I am so sorry!" said Hermione, helping Mr. Preese up. "I guess kids will be kids. You know, I'm pretty sure I can manage on my own. I'm sure you have lots of important work to do."
"Sorry, ma'm, but I am supposed to stay in the files room when another person is in here. Ministry regulations."
Emily started screaming. Jack started throwing important papers around.
"But this is requested by Dumbledore, Mr. Preese," said Hermione. "And he needs this as fast as possible. I'm sure the Ministry will understand. Don't you trust me?"
Hermione smiled sweetly. Emily yelled harder. Jack started folding the files into paper airplanes.
Mr. Preese looked torn. "Um, okay...but only because this is for Dumbledore."
"Thank you very much, Mr. Preese. I'll be done in no time."
Mr. Preese walked quickly from the room and closed the door.
"Whew," breathed Hermione. "That went better than expected."
Emily and Jack walked up to their mother.
"How did we do?" asked Jack.
"You guys were perfect," said Hermione, kissing each child. "Now, can you two keep an eye on the door for me?"
"Sure thing!" said Emily. She and her brother ran up to the door and stared through the frosted window.
Hermione started looking through the resent cases section.
"H...Harry Potter..." she mumbled to herself.
She found nothing, and moved on to the letter P. "Potter...Potter..."
She looked under C for Canada, and then under Calgary. Still nothing.
"Aha! I'll try G! Granger..." She flipped through files, but still found nothing.
Finally, it was under W, for Weasley, that she found what she was looking for.
"Here it is!" she said excitedly.
It was a scroll of paper that held all information about the "Harry Potter sighting" Hermione had been involved in. The file even had all newspaper clippings that were relevant.
On the Ministry-filed scroll, Hermione could see all observations made by the Ministry. It had the time and date of the sighting, the time of the spell performed in muggle area, the longitude and latitude of the location, the number of people there, a copy of all recorded dialogue, a magic detector scan, and the new labels of each muggle involved, in case the Ministry needed to perform any memory charms in the future.
Hermione pulled out her wand and made a copy of the scroll. Then she put the file away neatly, cleaned up the room, and put the copied file away in her purse.
"Ready to go?" she asked her kids.
"Yeah," said Jack. "Did you find anything?"
"Yes I did. But let's hurry home. I'll show you guys there."
Hermione, Jack, and Emily said a hurried thank you to Mr. Preese, then got out of the building as quickly as possible. Hermione took Jack's and Emily's hands and apparated back home.
"So, what did you find?" asked Jack eagerly as soon as they were home.
"Wait, is Ron still home?" said Hermione.
"No, he said he wasn't going to be home until five. He's in a meeting."
"Good. Now, I need you guys to promise me something."
Jack and Emily nodded in all seriousness.
"You guys cannot tell your father about this."
"Why?" asked Emily.
"Well, because, I don't think he would like it if we told him. It can only be us three who know, for right now. So, promise you won't tell?"
"I promise," said Jack and Emily in unison.
"Okay, here it is." Hermione pulled out the scroll from her purse. "Here it has a copy of what was spoken between me and the man I think was Harry. Now, if you look closely, you'll see that I never said the last name 'Potter', and neither did Ron. The one time I was going to say 'Potter' I was interrupted, see? But," Hermione pointed to the bottom of the scroll, "Here, when Ron says ' Whatever happened to the friend we used to know and love?' the man I thought was Harry answers 'That Harry Potter of yours must have died.' But how did the man know Harry's last name?"
Jack and Emily looked at their mother excitedly. This was big.
"And," continued Hermione, "When I pointed my wand at the man I thought was Harry, he ducks and he says 'No! Stop! I can't block anything!' But how would a muggle know what I was doing, and then know that he could block a spell?"
"It's him! It's him!" shouted Emily, smiling.
"Oh, but look," said Hermione, "There's one problem." Jack's and Emily's smiles faded. "You see," said Hermione, pointing to the scroll, "Here are the results of a magic detector scan. The man I thought was Harry has a magic level too low to be a wizard. It would be highlighted in red ink, like mine, if he was."
"What are all those numbers for?" asked Emily.
"Those show the exact percent of the magic level in each person."
"Well, then everybody there can do magic, right?"
"No, you see, all people, even muggles, have a certain amount of magic inside them, only for muggles it is a very low amount; too low to be useful. Occasionally a muggle's magic will do something of consequence, but it is usually thought to be just plain old good luck."
"Oh." Emily looked sad once again.
"But Mummy," said Jack, "That man you thought was Harry has no magic."
"Excuse me?"
"Look here." Jack pointed to the scroll. "It says here '0'. That means no magic. But I thought you said that all people have magic."
"They do..." said Hermione quietly.
"So...?"
"So, something strange is going on here."
"That's good, right?"
"Yes, yes, it's very good. My plan might work after all."
"Goody goody goody!" said Emily happily.
Hermione pulled out a small grey sphere from her pocket.
"Hmm, it's says here 'James Potterson, muggle # 534'. They keep a number on every muggle involved with the wizarding world for about a month, just in case anything weird starts to happen. Usually nothing does, but it's for safety. This numbering system happens to be very good for us."
Hermione tapped her wand on the sphere and said, "Insequi. Follow James Potterson, Calgary, Canada, muggle #534. Record all conversations with the words 'wizard', 'witch', 'England', 'Hogwarts', 'Hermione Granger', 'Ron Weasley', 'Draco Malfoy'. Abire."
The sphere turned a few times in the air, then zoomed out the window.
"Well, I think that should cover it" said Hermione.
"What was that, Mum?" asked Jack.
"It was a Spy Sphere. It will follow the man I think is Harry and it will come back to us when it has any conversations recorded with the words I said. That way we'll find out whether or not he's Harry."
"Your plan will work, Mum," reassured Jack.
"Yeah," piped up Emily, "He won't be able to hide for long."
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