Torn Away: Scenes From A Memory by Tradiferis
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Everything that you do not recognize is most likely mine, everything that you do recognize isn't mine. Onto the story.
Chapter Nine
A Change Of Seasons
Harry looked at the face that was in front of him as it sneered back at him. He wanted to kick its head off, and he knew for a fact that the face wanted the same. Motioning his hand to the right he smirked when he saw the face follow it. Jutting his leg out, he kicked the face's right kneecap in, and as it fell to the floor he followed it up with a kick to the head, which snapped the face's neck.
Suddenly a hand was placed on his shoulder, and without thinking, Harry grabbed the hand's wrist. With one swift motion, Harry pulled the wrist forward and brought his other arm up under the person's elbow, breaking it. He quickly turned around to finish off his assailant, and quickly regretted what he had just done.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!" roared Patrick who was currently on the ground holding his, now broken, arm while withering in pain.
"I, er..." Harry stood looking at Patrick, holding the back of his head with one of his hands, "Uh, you needed me for something?"
"The Heads need you," Patrick grounded out, getting himself into a sitting position, "And you better hope that you are out of the country by the time I get this healed."
"No need to worry," Harry said, as he grabbed his outer cloak and ran as fast as he could out of the training center. While he was walking towards the meeting room (which he knew from experience was where you reported to when "the Heads needed you"), he went through a battery of cleaning spells on his body and robes so that he would be presentable to the Heads. As he neared the meeting room, he noticed that the Department of Mysteries looked to be in about near chaos, as hoards of Unspeakables were running around.
'That's odd,' Harry thought to himself; he had never seen the Department looking anything like this before. Heading towards the meeting room, he was stopped by a harried-looking witch.
"ID please," she demanded, giving Harry a very suspicious look. Harry merely raised his eyebrows before pulling his ID card out of his cloak pocket and handing it to the witch who ran her wand over it.
"You can proceed, have a nice day Mr. Waechter," the witch responded, allowing Harry to pass into the meeting room. Walking in he noticed there was as much commotion in the room as there was outside of it.
"Good, you're here," said the Head that was wearing dark green robes, "Everybody, please be seated."
Sitting down in an empty chair, Harry noticed that an unusually high amount of field agents were present. He even recognized a few from assignments that he had been on.
'Why do they need this many specialty agents?' Harry thought to himself as he waited for the heads to start speaking.
"This morning at roughly six when the Dementors at Azkaban were conducting their morning inspection, a cell in the high security area was discovered empty," started the Head that was wearing purple robes, "When the Ministry guards were alerted, it was discovered that the cell that was empty was that of Sirius Black."
When this was said, a chill went through the room. Harry managed to keep a mask of no emotion on his face thanks to his Metamorphmagus abilities, but inside he was going insane.
'SIRIUS GOT OUT?' was being screamed through his head as the Heads went on.
"What we are going to say in this room is NOT to leave, or you will find yourself levied with charges of high treason," the Head with dark green robes continued on, "Whatever you know of Sirius Black, forget it. You are about to re-learn just who he is."
With a flick of his wand, the Head conjured a picture of Sirius as Harry remembered him when he had met him for the first time at the end of his third year that appeared on the wall.
"This is what Mr. Black looks as of three days ago," the purple robed Head said, before flicking his wand, "This is as he appeared three days before his arrest."
Harry looked shocked at the board as he saw a Department of Mysteries ID card appear on the wall with Sirius on it.
"Mr. Black was one of our best black ops Unspeakables, and since you know of the loyalty oaths that you must take to work in this Department, we know that Sirius never betrayed the Potters," the green robed Head said, "We couldn't, however, come forth with this information so that Agent Black's cover wasn't blown, which he firmly understands."
With another flick of his wand, the wall was blank once again, and everyone in the room refocused back on the Heads.
"We gathered you in this room because you are some of our best agents, and we need to help Agent Black," the purple robe Head explained, "We are each tasking you with the mission to find Agent Black, and help him out in whatever way you can that WILL NOT draw the Ministries attention. Once you find him and help him, you are to report DIRECTLY back to us to tell us of what you did, along with any information you may receive from Agent Black. It is of utmost importance that you find him quickly, so that the Ministry does not find him first. His cover MUST NOT be blown. You are dismissed, except for Agent Waechter, we need to speak with you for a moment."
Harry waited patiently as the room emptied, till it was just him and the Heads.
"We need someone to go to Azkaban to find out what the Ministry knows so far, and to also find out who is working on their investigation," the Head with the purple robes related to Harry, "Due to your abilities, we feel it would be best if it was you."
The green robed Head gave Harry a folder, saying, "The documentation in here will get you by any obstacles that you come across. Report back to us once you have found Mr. Black Agent Waechter."
"Yes sir," Harry responded, taking the folder then walking out of the room towards his office. Grabbing his briefcase from his office, he put the folder in it before walking to the Apparition point to go back to his flat quickly before heading out to Azkaban.
Arriving at his flat, Harry quickly changed his robes into a set of completely black robes. Looking into his mirror, he changed his facial features around so that he was unrecognizable. He also changed darkened his hair, and changed his eye color. He also took the necessary documents out of his briefcase before putting it in a heavily charmed safe that was in a secret door of his wardrobe.
Walking into the kitchen he took out a piece of parchment and a quill from one of the drawers next to the sink and wrote a quick note.
'Dora-
I just was given an assignment that has an unknown time frame on it. I hope to get this done quickly as I know that you're getting your commission next month. Hopefully this won't take that long. As always, check with Patrick if you get worried, he might be able to tell you something. Tell him sorry, too.
Love,
Ludwig
Checking to make sure he had all of his extra wands in place, and that he had all the necessary documentation, Harry Apparated to Azkaban.
When he arrived at the Apparition point, he noticed that the wizarding prison resembled a mad house. Wizards and witches were running around everywhere, and there appeared to be no organization present. Keeping his face blank of emotion, Harry walked towards the high security area. Once he got there, however, the commotion seemed less, as Aurors and Ministry officials were littered all over the wing.
"May I help you?" came a voice to Harry's left as soon as he entered the wing.
Harry looked up and saw what was obviously a rookie Auror, based on how neat and pressed his robes were, plus just how young he looked. Holding out one of the papers that decreed that he was to be given full access to the case, he replied, "I need to speak to whoever is in charge of this mess."
The Auror read over the paper, eyes growing wide as he did, before saying, "Kingsley Shacklebolt is in charge, he is currently in the escapee's cell scanning for clues. He's easy to recognize, he's tall, dark, and has a shaved head."
"Thank you," Harry responded, taking his authorization paper back from the young officer, before following the myriad of officials and Aurors to where the cell that held Sirius obviously was located. When he arrived, he saw that Kingsley Shacklebolt was indeed present, and was the only one in the cell at the moment. He also was just staring at one of the corners.
"May I help you?" came his deep voice after Harry had stood staring at him for a few moments.
"Yes, I need access to all the information that you have found so far," Harry replied, lowering his voice as well. Kingsley stood staring at the corner for a few more seconds before turning around and giving Harry a piercing stare.
"And you would be?"
"The official liaison to the Department of Mysteries," Harry said, not giving up his name, but giving up just enough to appease Kingsley's question. When Kingsley looked skeptical Harry handed over the folder that the Heads had given him.
"In there you will find all the necessary paperwork and decrees giving me access to all the information that you have," Harry commented as Kingsley looked through the paperwork, "You will also find that I am allowed to use force to obtain the information if I feel it is necessary."
"That won't be needed," Kingsley commented, before waving his wand and closing the door on the cell. Harry also put up a soundproofing ward on the cell so that the conversation that was about to take place wasn't overheard.
"What do you know?" Harry asked, directly for the first time.
"We know that Mr. Black must have escaped early this morning between two and five, when the Dementors do not patrol as to allow the inmates a chance to sleep," Kingsley said, then waved Harry over near him, "He escaped through this tunnel, although we are still trying to figure out how he managed to dig, as the inmates are not provided any tools that would allow them to dig as you well know."
Harry examined the tunnel, and saw that he could make out some obvious claw-like marks on the wall of the tunnel, although he surmised that it would be difficult to place the marks unless you knew that Sirius was an Animagus. Looking at Kingsley he asked a question he already knew the answer to, but one he knew he must ask to keep up appearances.
"Was Mr. Black reported as having odd behavior prior to his escape?"
Kingsley looked thoughtful for a moment, before responding, "After the Minister visited two weeks ago Mr. Black was reported by the human guards as becoming slightly unhinged and yelling 'He's at Hogwarts' at all hours of the day and night."
Harry kept his face void of facial expressions as he asked another question he knew the answer to, "Did the Minister come anywhere near Mr. Black while he was here?"
Kingsley answered with the answer he knew he was going to have, "Yes, and he said that Mr. Black was well within his wits, almost eerily so. He even asked for the Minister's copy of the Daily Prophet."
Harry, who had been examining the tunnel, snapped his head back up at Kingsley, "He asked for the Prophet?"
"Yes."
"Pray tell, did the Minister actually give it to him?" Harry asked, piecing together the puzzle in his head. From the look on Kingsley's face, the wheels were turning as well.
"Yes he did," Kingsley replied, thinking, "He mentioned that Black said something about 'missing the crossword.'"
Harry putting on an act to keep up appearances let his mask 'slip' for a moment, "Shit."
"Do you think that Black actually used the residual magic of the newspaper to give him what he needed to tunnel out of the cell?" Kingsley asked, the pieces falling together in his head.
"Well, seeing that Black was basically The Dark Lord's right hand man, it makes sense doesn't it?" Harry responded, silently giving himself a small pat on the back for giving the Ministry Auror's a headache for days to come, "Have your team start to look into all residual magic that matches that exuded by the Prophet. I'm going to go back to my own and set up the search party there."
Harry quickly stood up and walked out of the cell and didn't allow his mask to slip until he had reached the Apparition point on the island. A small smile crossed his features as he Apparated to the Department of Mysteries to inform the Heads what the Auror's were going to be looking for so that they would be able to run interference in case Sirius actually WAS using residual magic.
Half an hour later, Harry was in his office looking at a map thinking, 'Now if I was an escaped convict that was also an Animagus, where would I go?'
Crossing out all areas near Azkaban that were 'high traffic areas,' Harry quickly decided to research the forests that were all within a ten mile radius of the Azkaban Island. Grabbing his 'field satchel,' Harry quickly left his office and Apparated to the first of five areas on his list.
After the third forest, which Harry had decided that was to thickly covered for Sirius to consider using, Harry came upon a forest that wasn't to dense, but at the same time was decent in it's thickness.
'This is a good candidate,' Harry thought to himself as he pulled out his wand and muttered an incantation that would allow him to know if any Animagi were within a mile's radius of where he was. When the tip of his wand glowed a bright red Harry whispered out loud, "Perfect."
Walking forward he ran his wand over the ground looking for any paw prints left by dogs, or any footprints left by a human. After ten minutes of searching, he still hadn't found any prints, but luck seemed to smile on him as he heard a twig snapping in the forest. Quickly pulling his invisibility cloak out of his satchel, Harry huddled himself in the shadow cast by a particularly big tree.
In a few minutes, his searching paid off as a Grim-looking dog walked out of the shadow looking very weary. It also appeared to be slightly soaked to the bone.
'It's him,' Harry thought to himself, trying to keep his composure for this 'reunion' of sorts with Sirius.
Harry watched as the dog maneuvered its way around the roots of the tree before finding a resting space in between two of the biggest roots. Harry just looked at the dog from under his invisibility cloak, observing it as it tried to huddle in on itself to protect itself from the unusually cold summer night. Taking off the cloak Harry walked over to the dog.
"Sirius Black, I presume?" Harry asked in his 'Ludwig' voice, as he knew for a fact that he would be seeing Sirius numerous times, and didn't want to give away who exactly he was. Harry smirked as he saw the dog get an alarmed look on its face, "Yes, I know it's you, Agent Black. You can reveal yourself, unless you prefer for me to do it?"
The dog looked even more startled, before it transformed into Sirius Black, "How do you-?"
"How do I know that you're an Unspeakable?" Harry asked, as Sirius nodded his head in shock, and Harry took out his ID card, "Agent Ludwig Waechter, pleased to meet you."
Sirius took the card and examined it, before handing it back to Harry and saying in a fearful voice, "Are you going to take me back?"
"No," Harry responded, seeing relief wash over Sirius' features, "You're an innocent man, and one of ours. No, I'm here to offer you some assistance."
Sirius looked at him quizzically as Harry reached behind his head to between his shoulder blades and pulled out a wand, and then handed it to Sirius.
"Make sure you do your best to keep your spells to low level magic, so you don't draw the attention of the Ministry, they're currently on the lookout for residual magic of the type that the Daily Prophet lets out," Harry told Sirius as he handed him his satchel, "You'll find a blanket, and enough food to last you for three weeks in here. Just enlarge the capsules."
"Thank you," Sirius responded in a haggard voice, sitting back down and opening up the satchel. Harry looked on in longing, he wished he could just take Sirius into his arms and tell him everything that was going to happen, but he knew that he couldn't. It would be detrimental to the future, something that he couldn't alter without turning the universe on its head.
"Glad to be of service Sirius," Harry said with a slight hitch in his voice, before walking away and Apparating back to the Department of Mysteries.
-
Harry looked at himself in the mirror, he was trying to get his hair just right. He wanted the night to be absolutely perfect, and he would rather think about whispering sweet nothing to a Lethifold, than to think about what would happen if this night went off with more than a few hitches.
He had just gotten his blond hair to fall in just the right direction when he saw in the mirror of his wardrobe his least favorite roommate, Adrian Dickinson trying to get his attention.
"What?" Harry said in a snapping tone. Adrian had seemed to have a problem with Harry ever since he had 'started' at Hogwarts the previous year, mostly due to the fact that Harry was 'stealing' the looks of girls that normally only looked at Adrian. This led to Adrian being really petty, and just a complete arse to Harry his entire sixth year, and now seventh.
"I-uh," Adrian stuttered, only causing Harry's temper to rise.
"Spit it out, I'm getting ready," Harry snapped, checking his watch; he still had a good ten minutes before he was to meet Tonks in the common room.
"It's your girlfriend," Adrian finally got out, "Some girls ruined her dress-"
"WHAT?!" Harry yelled, shocked, before calming down and saying, "Are you having me on...?"
"No, not over something like this," was Adrian's response, "I was waiting for Angela, when she came down and started gloating about 'what she did to that klutz' and how she never deserved to go to the Ball with you."
Harry just looked at Adrian for a second with a calculating look, before grabbing his wand from his table and grinding out, "If I ever find out that you were in on this with your girlfriend-"
"Ex-girlfriend, actually," Adrian replied, causing Harry to pause as he was walking for the door, "We may never have gotten along, but what she did was just wrong. It was way beyond petty, it was just callous and mean."
Harry's eyebrows shot up into his hairline; he didn't think that Adrian had a moral bone in his body.
"Listen, Ludwig, you go help your girlfriend, and I'll tell Professor Flitwick what Angela did," Adrian said, making a motion to leave before Harry grabbed his shoulder.
"You don't need to do that, just go to the ball; there are a thousand other girls that would love to go with you on such short notice."
"No, I need to," Adrian responded, "I learned something from you Ludwig from all the times I tormented you and you didn't respond, just rolled with the punches. I learned how to be mature, and now I must do the mature thing."
Harry suspected there was more to the story than Adrian was letting on, but he didn't want to scan his mind because he just wanted to get to Tonks as fast as possible. Harry stood speechless for a moment, before rushing off to see if he could get up into the female dormitory. He didn't have to worry as he saw the Fey at the bottom of the stairs.
"I already got permission from Professor Flitwick for you to go up," she told Harry, "She's in a right state at the moment, I'd be careful..."
"You would be in a right state too," Harry muttered to himself under his breath, walking up the step of the Ravenclaw girl's dormitory. As he reached the seventh year's dorm, he heard a muffled crying from within. Taking a deep breath and unconscientiously straightening his robes out, he knocked on the door.
"'Dora," he asked, "Are you in there?"
The only response he got back was more crying. Taking another deep breath he called out, "I'm coming in," before proceeding to do just so. When he got in he saw what had to be Tonks' dress, which was just about ripped to shreds, and discolored from what looked to originally be a deep blue.
'That little slapper,' Harry thought to himself, before noticing Tonks crying on the bed.
"'Dora..." Harry said almost to himself as he came upon Tonks, and took her in his arms, "Are you okay?"
"She ruined my dress," Tonks said to Harry as he rubbed her back, "That bitch ruined my dress..."
Tonks broke out in renewed sob as Harry tried to comfort her, "Hey, it's not the end of the world-"
"YES IT IS!" Tonks yelled, beating on Harry's chest, "I was looking forward to going to this with you ever since it was announced, and I spent so much time picking out just the right dress and making sure I had just the right look and for what? NOTHING! All because of that tart and her stupid effing grudges!"
Harry knew that Angela Pintfield (as well as a few other girls) had been mad when the 'klutz' had 'nabbed the hottie.' Harry frankly thought that he wouldn't even consider going out with someone so shallow to begin with, which infuriated him even more when they made snide remarks to Tonks, "'Dora, honey, listen. That bitch isn't worth the tears. Everything will work out fine!"
"How?" Tonks asked, looking up at Harry with a helpless expression on his face. That look made Harry start for a second, as Tonks NEVER looked that helpless. In that moment he decided that Angela Pintfield had better never even look at him again otherwise he would hex her with the most painful boil curse that he knew, morals be damned. Looking at Tonks as his anger at Angela compounded, a plan started to form in the back of his head.
"What color was your dress?" Harry asked, standing up and taking a hold of the tattered dress.
"Deep blue," Tonks whispered, looking at Harry with a puzzled look.
"Do you have anything that showed what the dress looked like before...this happened?" Harry continued, surveying the dress with a lot of intensity, thinking, 'I am not going to let that tart ruin her evening.'
"Yes," Tonks replied, opening a drawer next to her bed, and pulling out a parchment that was the bill of sale for the dress. Included on the bill was a revolving picture of the dress. Harry looked at in intently for a second before holding his hand over the dress. In seconds both the dress and his hand started to glow, before the dress was enveloped in a bright light that lasted for about five seconds. When the light receded, the dress appeared just how it had in the picture.
"H-How?" Tonks questioned, taking a hold of the dress and looking it over.
"Put that dress on my dear, and let's give those people something to think about," Harry simply responded, walking out of the room leaving a stunned Tonks in his wake.
-
"There is some strange goings on the European mainland right now," one of the Heads said to Harry after he arrived in their office and was seated, "We need a few of our agents over there to do a little investigating."
"As one of our best Hit Wizards, you are obviously a top candidate for this mission Agent Waechter," the second Head said to Harry, who only nodded, mask of neutrality firmly in place, "Now this mission isn't like any of the other missions that we have sent you on so far."
"This is a long term mission, in the truest sense of the phrase," the first Head told Harry, "The mission would last anywhere between a month and half a year, which is the maximum that we allow our agents to go on, with very few exceptions."
"It would also be a so called "Black on Black" mission," the second Head related to Harry, "Where if you were discovered we would disavow all connections to you, as you would be doing some slightly illegal actions, but we must learn this information, and can't worry about certain legal matters slowing us down."
"As you would be away from your home for a few months, and would be on a mission that could land you in a bad way, we are giving you the option of leaving this room and not remembering a thing about what we just said," the first Head responded, giving Harry a way out. When Harry was in his 'true' sixth year, he might have taken it. This Harry however, had learned better.
"That won't be needed," he responded after a moment, "I will go on this assignment."
"Great," exclaimed the second Head, putting a folder on the desk in front of Harry that was more massive than he was used to seeing for missions, "In this you will find out everything that you will need to know. Information about targets, safe houses, leads, and where to establish a residence and what form of life to lead while on the mission. Your primary base of operations will be out of Essex in Germany, so hopefully you haven't forgotten all of your German speaking skills."
Harry let a smirk creep onto his face as the head winked at him. He stood up and took the folder, and was about to leave when the first Head spoke, "You will not be starting this mission for another week, so we are granting you time off until then. Get your affairs in order Agent Waechter, you will not be attending to them for some time."
Harry nodded his head and walked towards his office, he had a few 'loose ends' that he needed to tie up before he left, and he had to make sure he didn't leave anything in his office that might possibly one day implicate him in a delicate political situation should the Department of Mysteries ever lose it's power.
Walking into his flat nearing six in the evening, he heard some commotion coming from the bedroom. Walking in, he saw Tonks throwing things all over the room.
"My God!" Tonks yelled, taking on of her shoes off and throwing it into her wardrobe, "I'm almost an effing Auror!"
Harry just stood looking at his girlfriend waiting for her to notice him, and also taking in the slightly skimpy dress that she was in, that matched perfectly with her pink hair.
"Young hooligans, my arse," Tonks continued yelling, storming into the conjoined bathroom, before walking back out a moment later, and startling herself when she noticed Harry, "Luddie! Holy hell! You scared me! I thought you were supposed to be at work?"
"I, er...we'll get to that in a moment," Harry said, surveying Tonks in her harried state, "What the hell happened to you?"
Tonks looked murderous for a second, before saying, "Okay, you know how I, since I have the day off, was going to have lunch with Emily and Helen?"
"Ja."
"Well, when I got to the restaurant, the head waiter goes to us," Tonks adopted a posh tone, "'We do not seat your kind in here!'"
"What did you do?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.
Tonks breathed in a moment before continuing, "I asked what he meant by 'your kind' seeing that maybe, SOMEHOW, this guy knew that we were witches, and that it was a muggle only restaurant."
Harry nodded, he'd come upon the type in his travels for the Department of Mysteries in areas where magic was not concealed from muggles due to the high density of magical people in the area. They were rare, but not unheard of - except in Britain.
"Well, the prick says, 'We do not allow young hooligans and street urchins in this fine establishment,' and he had the security escort us out!" Tonks went on, before huffing as she was sitting down on the bed, "Street Urchin! What a fucking tosser, I'm almost an Auror!"
Harry sat down next to Tonks; put his arm around her before asking, "What was the 'fine establishment'?"
Tonks cocked a grin on her face for a second before responding, "That French place near Soho."
Harry raised his eyebrow, "Why would you even consider going there?"
"Helen said that they served good food-" Tonks was cut off by Harry.
"They're the French! They wouldn't know good food if it bit them in the arse while singing 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful!" Harry exclaimed, subtly trying to cheer Tonks up, "I would know too! I've been on one to many missions to that God-forsaken country, and their food is horrible!"
"Well, we were willing to give it a TRY," Tonks emphasized looking not so glum for a moment, before looking downcast again, "But they didn't even give us a chance. The guy just started going on about us being 'street urchins' and 'young hooligans.' I swear, that guy has no idea what I could do to him if he wasn't a muggle..."
That give Harry an idea, "You might not be able to, but I can."
"What do you mean Ludwig?" Tonks asked, looking suspicious while Harry stood up and tapped his wand in an intricate pattern on his wardrobe, revealing a secret compartment that had many 'official' papers in it. Harry thumbed through it for a moment, before pulling a booklet that looked like a passport out of the compartment. Turning around he smiled at Tonks and handed her the booklet.
"You may not be able to do anything to the man," Harry smirked, "But Agent Willem Elias of the MI-6 can."
Tonks opened the booklet and looked wide eyed at the identification that was within, for it portrayed Harry as a member of the MI-6.
"How do you get to have something like that?" Tonks asked in surprise, as Harry pulled her to her feet.
"Trade secret, darling," Harry responded, with a laugh, before surveying Tonks, "Now, get dressed in your most elegant dress, we are going to give that tosser a lesson he'll never forget."
Tonks laughed and proceeded to start to dig through her wardrobe to find the nicest dress that she could find, while Harry got dressed in a muggle business suit.
Ten minutes later, the pair was standing in front of the French restaurant, Tonks with a look of disgust on her face. Harry asked her if the man that had been rude to her and her friends earlier was still working, and after she affirmed that he was, Harry told her, "Now, just follow my lead. And before you ask, yes, what I am doing is perfectly legal."
Tonks giggled slightly before allowing Harry to lead her towards the man, who was looking down at the seating and reservation chart that was in front of him. Harry coughed to get the man's attention.
"May I help you?" the man replied, with a very 'posh' tone. Harry merely smirked.
"Yes, my lady friend here told me that you turned her and her friends away at the door earlier today?" Harry asked in even, almost chipper voice. The man looked from Harry to Tonks, where he stared at her for a moment before his eyes crossed.
"Oh yes, I remember her and her friends," the man responded hotly, "A bunch of tarts that-"
"If you'll excuse me, the lady is standing right here," Harry responded, a bit of anger creeping into his voice, "And the lady didnot appreciate what you did to her today."
"What are you going to do?" the other man shot back, with a superior tone in his voice, "Shoot me?"
Harry smirked and reached into his pocket as the waiter's eye started to grow wide, and then spoke to the man in a low voice, "Between you, me, and the fence post...I could."
Harry watched the man's face with much mirth as he extracted his 'identification' out of his pocket, and slid it across the table to the man. He was even more please when the man's eyes grew wider as he read it, before saying in the same low voice as he pulled the booklet back, "Yes, I do have a license to kill, and I have no qualms about using it. Remember that the next time you decide to be rude to a group of our fine ladies," Harry leaned back, took Tonks' arm, and then said in his normal voice, "Good day sir!"
After they were out of earshot of the man, Tonks almost broke down crying in laughter.
"That was amazing Luddie," Tonks said sitting down on the bench, shaking with laughter as Harry just stood standing in front of her.
"Well, I hate it when people treat others just based on appearances," Harry said, crossing his arms and looking at Tonks, who was still shaking with laughter, "Well, what do you say we go to that one restaurant in the village? They know us there, and we know the place well."
"Lead the way," Tonks said, before dropping her voice to match Harry's, "Darrrling."
Harry laughed at how she rolled the 'r' just the way that he did, before grabbing her and throwing her over his shoulder, earning a yelp in response, "Come on you little Nymph."
"Put me down Ludwig!" Tonks screamed from Harry's shoulder as he Disapparated, taking Tonks with him.
Later that night found the pair cuddled up in front of the television watching a show that neither was paying much attention to.
"Oh, I forgot to ask," Tonks said, turning around so that she was facing Harry, "Why did you come home from work early today?"
Harry breathed in and closed his eyes for a second before replying, "I'm being sent on a new mission, 'black on black' from what they tell me."
Tonks closed her eyes before responding, "How long?"
Harry sighed; Tonks didn't like it when he was constantly being sent out on missions since it separated the two of them, "Anywhere from a month to half a year. It all depends on how smoothly the operation goes."
Tonks lifted her head so that it was even with Harry's and put her hands on either side of Harry's neck, "I know that you know that I don't like it when you get sent to all corners of the earth for weeks at a time, so I won't say anything on that. But I will say that I don't care how long it takes as long as you come home safe to me. I love you Ludwig, and I love you enough to give you up so that you can do your job safely and not do something stupid just for my sake."
"I love you too 'Dora," Harry responded, putting his head against Tonks' forehead, "And I promise that I will be careful. I love you too much to do anything that would endanger me from not seeing you again."
As soon as he finished his sentence, Tonks kissed Harry hungrily on the lips, which Harry immediately responded to, causing the kiss to become heated very quickly. After a few minutes, Harry decided that the couch wasn't the best place to continue this activity, so he gathered Tonks in his arms and carried her to the bedroom, laughing with her all the way.
-
Harry looked at his watch, before lighting the cigar that he had in his mouth. Ganzer was more than ten minutes late. Leaning up against the wall with his Notice Me Not charm firmly in place, Harry puffed his cigar so that circles started to form from the smoke.
Running his hand through his scraggily hair that he had adopted so to blend more into the German underground, Harry checked to make sure that one of his wands was firmly in place, resting on his ear. Clenching his true wand in his hand, Harry heard the noise of people approaching. Listening to the pair, he was able to deduce that there were only two men, and that one of them was Ganzer.
As the pair approached Harry listened as the two men sounded worried that Harry would be mad that they were late. Making note of the fact that Ganzer placed a briefcase next to the table that was in the room Harry let himself be known.
"Good day Mr. Ganzer," Harry said stepping out of the shadows in a lethal sounding voice, surprising Ganzer and the other man that was with him.
The man that was obviously in charge looked at Harry quizzically before saying, "I'm sorry, but-"
"Money," Harry interrupted in the same tone of voice, and comprehension immediately ran across Ganzer's face.
"I don't have it.," was the response that Harry got, in a voice that sounded anything but regretful.
Harry shook his head and clucked his tongue before saying, "Could you do me a favor?"
Ganzer looked at Harry with a wary look, before looking at his associate and then looking back at Harry, "Ja?"
Harry smiled and then said simply, "Die."
In the time that it had taken for the words to registered with Ganzer and his associate Harry had removed his hand (that was holding his wand) from behind his back and shot the Killing Curse at Ganzer before aiming his wand at the associate who was fumbling for his wand.
"I would not advise that," Harry said to the main with the lethal tinge to his voice back, surveying the man who was trying to extract his wand.
"I didn't intend that!" the man yelled, backing himself up against the wall, panicked, "I didn't intend that!"
"Oh really?" Harry asked him with a high deal of skepticism in his voice, walking towards the man and putting his wand right up to the man's forehead, "I don't believe that."
Harry smirked, and watched as the man started to hyperventilate, before saying, "Stupefy... I'm going to need you for later."
Walking over to Ganzer he removed the man's cloak and inside of it found a parchment that held the meeting points for every member of the Achtung Syndicate, the group that was stirring up trouble on the European mainland, and the root cause of Harry's assignment. Harry smiled, this would reduce his work, and would possibly allow him to go home.
Harry grabbed the briefcase that was sitting next to the table, and with his wand opened it. Inside he found the money that was of question, smirking, "Knew he was a lying bastard."
He was about to pick up the associate when a lump in the robes of Ganzer caught his attention. Emptying the pocket that the lump was formed in Harry found a necklace that was vaguely familiar, and very intricate looking. Deciding to just pocket it and examine it later, Harry lifted the associate onto his shoulder and then Apparated to the safe house that the Department of Mysteries had set up for the central base of the mission.
End Chapter