Anyhoot, so yeah. If you really want to get into the identity of the evil mysterious guy, you'll have to look into the minor characters of the past three stories, not counting To Have and To Hold.
That's all I'm going to say.
Oh and a special thank you to Dazed Marauder, Lady Chuckles, Emmamoonpotter and Eric2.
Chapter Two
Harry woke up and got dressed in his usual clothes and pulled on his Auror cloak. He walked into the kitchen and found his little daughter sitting in a high chair playing with a breadroll. He saw Ginny flipping an omelet and walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her waist.
"Oh! Good morning, Harry," she chuckled. "Would you like some of my horribly cooked omelets?"
Harry laughed. He knew she couldn't cook very well, but he didn't care. He could compensate for it. "You really should let me do the cooking, since you tend to make food inedible," he grinned as he leaned against the counter.
She swatted him with the spatula. "Don't make me hit you again, Harry!" She grunted indignantly and put the broken and cheesy omelet on a plate.
Harry picked up the plate and saluted her before sitting down at the table beside his daughter. Lily giggled happily and beat the breadroll on the tray top of the highchair.
Harry grinned and kissed Lily's forehead and stroked her vivid red hair affectionately. "Looks as though someone is at least on my side," he chuckled.
Ginny stuck her tongue out at Harry and put her hands on her hips, looking much like her mother. After a moment, Ginny grinned at Harry.
Harry dug into the omelet with a fork and was surprised by a dribble of hot cheese landing on his leg. "YEOWCH!" he cried out as he rubbed hastily at the cheese spot.
Ginny spun around and laughed at the ridiculous image her husband made as he fanned at his lap hastily. She picked up her wand and removed the spot with a smile. "There, now you don't have to change for work."
Harry grinned at her and went back to eating. He thought about the previous night and wondered about the voodoo doll and the bit of hair that had been glued to its head. How did get a hold of his hair?
A breadroll bounced off his head to announce that he should be paying more attention to Lily instead of eating and thinking of work. He smirked and looked to his watch. "Gah! I'll be late! I'll be home at the usual time, Ginny!" He stood up and ran for the newspaper.
"No you—"
CRACK!
"…. Won't." Ginny sighed and went back to her daughter and feeding the both of them.
Harry walked off of the lift and into the Auror's offices, the morning's Daily Prophet in front of him. They were talking about someone who had been murdered the previous night. He sighed. There weren't enough aurors to spread around to prevent such occurrences.
A spell shot out at him and he jumped back. "GAH!" He had his wand ready and looked around the office for the expected offender.
Another spell shot out at him and he dodged again. He ran and hid in someone's cubicle, peering around the corner. Where was he?
A shout and Harry lunged away from the cubicle as Mad Eye Moody landed on the desk. "You have much to learn still, Potter!" he growled out before lunging at Harry.
Harry rolled away and shot a restraining spell at Moody. A satisfying thump later and Moody was glaring up at Harry. "Very good. Now release me, Potter."
Harry gazed down at his mentor. "Maybe I shouldn't if you keep up these blasted attacks. Ginny will have my hide if I come home with another scratch."
"Damn women! You're an auror now, Harry! You will be coming home missing LIMBS if you're damned good!" Moody grumbled as Harry sighed and released him.
"Achem," said a polite tone. Both men turned to see Tonks tapping her foot impatiently at Moody.
Moody waved his hand dismissively. "All right, all right, not all women are the like!" Then, he scowled at Tonks. "But you're an exception!" Then, he stalked off.
Harry watched Moody walk off before he burst out laughing. Tonks was suitably doubled over with tears in her eyes. "I don't know how you do it, Tonks. Or any of the other ladies that work here."
"He gets accustomed to being around us and we know a few things about keeping men in their place," she said with a grin.
Harry grinned back and walked to his cubicle. "New information on the bloke I was chasing?" he asked Tonks.
She sighed and shook her head. "All we know is what we saw. Some guy came out of nowhere, lured you into a trap and then you took care of the witch; which I might add, she is looking a great deal better now. However, she's also dead."
Harry snapped around to look at her with wide eyes. The color drained from his face. Had he killed someone with his carelessness?
She read his expression easily. "Not your fault, Harry. She was waiting in the holding cell when we came to ask her some questions, we found her dead on her bed."
"Poison?"
Tonks shook her head. "No. No marks, no potions, she was just dead. Which is odd, because she wasn't even that old. Come and have a look at her, if you want. She's in the morgue right now."
Harry turned from white to green in a split second. "No thanks. I'll pass."
"You're patrolling tonight again. Moody wants you to get more 'expirience' again," Tonks said as she leaned against Harry's cubicle wall. Suddenly, there was a creak and Harry turned in time to see the wall give way and Tonks land on her rear on top of the wall and someone caught underneath it.
Harry grinned. "Walking disaster area, you are." Then, he reached down to help her up. They both pulled the wall away and found someone rather familiar. "Hello, Mr. Weasley."
Arthur Weasley got to his feet and brushed himself off. "Oh! Hello, Harry…Nymph—Tonks. Sorry, was going to check on something for someone. Oh! Harry, do remember about coming over Saturday. See you later!" Then, Mr. Weasley trotted off.
Harry watched him walk off and clicked the cubicle wall in place. "So… I get to patrol again, tonight. Do you think I'll get a break from Moody if I actually catch anyone?"
Tonks grinned. "Doubt it."
Suddenly, Harry noticed a bit of a clamber over at the World Wizarding Radio. He turned his on and sat down.
"We interrupt 'Baby, You're My Sign' by The Zodiac to give you this special report. Mr. James Seaport was found dead in the street in the middle of London. His body was mutilated and his head had a strange symbol etched into it ritualistically. This is said to have been done by rogue Deatheaters, though the mark left was written on the wall nearest the body was not the Dark Mark, but of a new symbol. The same etched onto the forehead of Mr. Seaport. We now return you to the top ten hits."
Harry looked up at Tonks and she looked just as he felt. Sick. It was like the killings in his seventh year, only that was done by Voldemort and his lackey Donovan and Donovan's pet. He remembered the people that had died because of that stupid countdown.
"Looks as though this might be a rough night, Harry. We'll all be patrolling at this news," Tonks said.
Harry nodded and then stared at the radio on his desk. What was happening out there? Voldemort was gone, but the Deatheaters still lurked about. That wasn't good. He'd thought that they had all been rounded up and sent off to Azkaban, barring a few individuals, who had simply decided to keep to themselves in the last days of pulling out all the followers.
All of those that didn't go to Azkaban were being watched... constantly.
It didn't make sense that one of them had gone off and done precisely what they could not do. By now, the "Higher Beings" would have already heard about the dead man, though they knew about such things far ahead of even the news media. It was the lowers that got the news last. He was surprised he even got to hear it on the radio instead of from Moody.
A hooded female figure walked into the office somewhere around lunch, her hood hiding her face. What could be seen of her was extremely pale, as though she had never seen the light of day. Everyone who saw her figured her for a vampire, due to do complexion.
She walked off the lift and threw the maze of cubicles, her footsteps almost silent. She wore a black velvet cloak with black silk rope fastenings, a long dark red scarf handing from her neck.
Harry heard the footsteps faintly. They were slow in approaching, as though unsure of exactly where they wanted to end up. He leaned out of his cubicle and saw the cloaked woman. All he could see was the black cloak. "Hello? Do you need something?"
The woman looked up, but still he couldn't see her face. He saw a smile and she retreated into the maze. He grunted. He didn't like that smile. Was she one of those like the wizard he had chased the night before?
He got out of his chair and stalked out through the maze, following the black clad head. "Hello?" he called out. "Do you need something, miss?"
The head stopped walking and then ran for the lift. He dodged through the maze as other Aurors came out of their cubicles to see what was going on. He raced along one portion of the maze and found the woman at the other end. She waved and then jogged off.
Aurors started trying to make a grab for the woman, seeing Harry was so interested in her. She dodged them, evading grasp by mere centimeters. Her cloak even evaded them. It was as though it was a part of her body.
He gained on her as she rounded for the lift doors. Someone shouted for the doors to be closed and Shacklebolt appeared in the path of the woman. She ran straight at him and drove a fist into his jaw, literally knocking him into the wall as she ran through the doors.
Harry shouted, but the doors closed as the black clad woman waved at him again.
He gasped for breath as he leaned over on his knees. Kingsley Shacklebolt straightened from the wall and rubbed his jaw. "I 'ink 'e 'roke i'," he said without moving his jaw much. "'amn."
Harry looked to Shacklebolt and grimaced. A broken jaw? The woman must have hit him just right to do that.
"Harry! Did you catch her?" Kildare Rakes ran over, his blonde hair spiked this morning instead of it lying down as usual. "Did you know her?"
Harry shook his head. "No… at least I don't think I do. Get Shacklebolt to a mediwitch. He's got a broken jaw."
Rakes bobbed his head and tugged the bewildered Shacklebolt along with him. The man towered over Rakes, which made the image of seeing tiny Rakes leading this poor man off to have his jaw looked at.
Another mystery to solve and not enough evidence to give him an idea as to what was going on. This is what he hated about being a protector. He hardly ever got enough information without someone else to help.
St. Mungo's had its share of whackos and loonies, but it also was a hospital for magical maladies, such as your toes being on fire because you'd used the Blue Bell Fire spell to warm your feet and you'd somehow screwed up the spell.
Harry walked into the hospital. Helping some poor child with a beak for a nose was a very familiar face. Mrs. Hermione Weasley looked up to see him just as she transfigured the child's face back to normal. Then, she stood up and arched her back as she stretched. "Harry!"
She had trouble hugging Harry because of the bulk of her round stomach. "How are you, Hermione?" he asked, chuckling as she fretted over the bulk.
"I've been better. Ron was fussing over me this morning again, thinking I was going to pass out or something. You would think he would realize I'm not made of glass and neither is his baby," she grunted.
Harry laughed. "How is Ginny and Lily?" she asked.
He grinned. "Ginny swears that Lily is the last due to her overwhelming need to be with her daddy."
Hermione smirked. "It would be better if you hadn't had become an Auror. All of us never know when you're coming back to us whole or in pieces. Especially with Mad Eye Moody dictating your every move."
Harry grunted. "I can take care of myself, Hermione. Ginny knows I'll come out all right, just as you and Ron do."
Hermione put her hands up in defense and sighed. "All right, all right." She grunted as the baby kicked. "Urgh. You would think that the baby would stop moving so much."
"You try being cramped in a hot, wet area for nine months and see if you don't move," Harry countered with a grin. He dodged a swat from Hermione.
Hermione smiled after a moment and patted Harry on the arm. "I hope to see you Saturday for the family dinner."
Harry nodded and trotted off out of St. Mungo's.