Disclaimer: my thanks to Conan Doyle, Hiromu Arakawa, LogicalRaven and of course J.K for the central ideas and influences in this story.
Notes: 'edit done now half of what was chapter 6 is part of 5' the Easter was a little dull but I'm back now and the world speeds up again, first off the seems to be a good response picking up on the story, and this is I admit making me feel better about the whole thing. As for this chapter it was gonna be the end of the last one, but it wont hurt to place it here, its not complete, Any way, enjoy…
"A Miss Cho Debber believed the last to be attacked yet despite injures to the chest arm and neck is alive, moved St Mungo's."
Amy's words rang out calmly as a bang was heard outside the warehouse; O'Riley knew that sound 'Weaslys dam Mustang.'
O'Riley wheeled round to see three dark robed figures entering from the abandoned yard outside, which was being pelted by heavy rain, Tonks bubble gum pink hair was clearly visible and she was in a conversation with Harry to her left. Ron taking sips from a Copper flask of coffee on the right.
Harry was, just about to ask Tonks why O'Riley had such hard feelings towards Lestrade, when the portly man in question strode in font of them flanked by two officers under his charge. Holding out a short thick arm in front of him, he was clearly annoyed, an emotion that he was, it seemed, to be acting on. "Here now, what's all this? Were in the middle of a crime investigation, and you three burst in like you own the place? I want some clearance now! From the lot of you."
Ron starred at Lestrade, loudly sipping his coffee with a clear look of amusement on his face, Harry in contrast was ignoring the inspector completely, casting his eyes round the store room, and between them Tonks sternly held her ground, her hair flashing a dangerous shade of bright crimson. "Your joking off course?" she replied, to this Lestrade seemed to swell, in a manner that reminded Harry of his large and fairly beefy uncle.
He opened his mouth to reprimand her but O'Riley's voice came form behind him,
"Their clearance is mine, is there a problem with that"
"Well no but,"
"But, this is a joint investigation, and hence a joint crime seen."
"Well yes but,"
"But, the minister of magic, ordered complete support, and I don't see Auror's holding up any of your men, do you?" she gave this last question with a finality that told Lestrade that any argument was pointless…
…That didn't stop him trying.
"This is true but,"
O'Riley was annoyed. Her left eyebrow twitched and some sparks of magical energy seemed to flicker between her and the upstart.
At this the Inspector seemed to hop back, and the Regs looked nervous. Tonks dived carefully between the pair, her hair a sudden Eremite grey, waving her arms about trying to smile. "Now, now Katharine, I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it. Just procedure you know."
Harry and Ron, holding their breath nodded their heads in agreement, no one else moved, they all watched O'Riley and hoped to god Lestrade had not gone to far, Harry mealy hoped he had a chance to jump to cover. And Ron hoped to finish his morning draft of coffee…he needed this coffee.
O'Riley looked surprised at Tonks sudden intervention, and her face resumed more normal stern, searching expression. With a gliding tern, she ordered the Auror's to follow. This they readily did breathing a collective sigh of relief. Lestrade merely stood behind them, dumfounded and ignored.
The group moved over to where Shaklebolt and Forester stood pointing at discoveries of interest and were studying the victims' wands. Upon there approach Harry and Ron nodded to Amy, the pair liked her, and the three had become fast friends. She had been a student Auror a year longer than the pair and had shown them most of the ropes,
Never leave your wand off your person,
Be quick on your feet,
And on no account piss off O'Riley.
She was also a level 2 Auror, they're being four stages. Harry and Ron were level 1 Harry under Tonks who was a level 3 and Ron under Kinsky, a level 4, O'Riley was the other level 4, Amy's Tutor and the head of office. Now that this Office was together they got down to business.
"Merlin, what a mess" said Ron looking around at the sprayed walls and floor. Shaklebolt nodded in agreement, before answering in that same calm and methodical way "Indeed its fairly similar to a case back in 78, we had a Reg or two this morning reliving there lunches." He cast a glance over Harry and Ron As if expecting one of them to go green. Instead Harry fixed him with his gaze and inquired
"Who was first down?" to the group. "From the foot prints it seems that Mr Rance went down first, he was also the deepest into the building and furthest from the entrance," said Amy pointing to her copy slumped near the far wall. "But whatever hit him got him fast, wand shows no sign of use, his partner didn't react."
"Bout that" interrupted Tonk's her a hair a inquisitive blue "probably I have missed something I guess, but ant the meant to be 'four' bodes, I see three."
"This is true, Lucy Ferriner, the partner to Mr Rance hasn't been found but the shear amount of blood suggests she was standing here, then the body was dragged to the window, hence the blood along here" Amy pointed to a long passage of red that appeared indeed to have been caused by a body being dragged.
"Suggestive, but its strange however" Amy said walking, leading the group over to the centre wall that divided the warehouse, the attacker, yes the was just one." In answer to Ron's raised eyebrows "seems to just appear next to where Lucy was standing."
"They could of apparated?" suggested Tonks but Amy shook her head, "it did occur to us, but the sound would off been a warning and the attacker seems be wounded, or more likely exerted to much energy, see here where they leaned against the wall." She pointed out a mark where an arm and hand could be made out, printed in blood sliding across the wall. "What's more this marks the aggressor out as quite tall, combined with the distance of their stride to be about 5foot. Lucy's wand is also unaccounted for, with the body so we don't know if she used a spell."
"And the footprints themselves?" asked Ron bending down to make out the pattern from the chaos.
Shaklebolt gave a long sigh, closing his eyes evidently in grate thought, as he spoke "there feet from a woman, we can tell this despite the Reg's blundering about the whole place, because she was bare foot. The footprints make her out to be quite light and apart form the stagger against the wall, dangerously graceful."
He moved over to the entrance between the two rooms, a simple large doorway showed much of the first chamber where Tonks and her company entered, and Ministry Regular enforcement were still working. By this entrance he motioned the others to pause. "See here" he again pointed to the ground next to the doorway "she waited here; see how the footprints are heavier. This is probably where she ambushed victim number three." He finished a hollow grin on his grey face.
O'Riley spoke up, "when this pair," she waved her arm in the direction of the room they now occupied "didn't report in from the there patrol and the ministry lost contact. They ordered a off duty couple to investigate, five minutes latter they were found next door by ministry hit wizards" she walked into the large store room scattering some Reg's inspecting the closer of Amy's copies. "The male" she continued ignoring Lestrade's teem completely "was the next down as he approached the other room, bare in mind that at that time it was quite dark, indeed an inspection of his fallen wand showed he was using a Lumos spell to cast light into there." Ron with a sudden flash of fought interrupted "white, you said couple, right?"
O'Riley looked at the source of her interruption sternly. Ron swallowed, and under duress asked, "well were they married? Hell we haven't even been given their names." Tonks and Harry dully nodded; it was a fair point. O'Riley breathed out deeply, "Yes Wesaley, they'd been marred a year, Mr and Miss Debber, but Miss Dibber would now be a widow." No one looked at Harry with this statement, but he didn't seem to notice, he was lost in his own thoughts, something about the name Debber was making him uneasy, where had he herd it before? What's more if they had only been marred a year than they were young, it was likely he had known them at Hogwarts. Dimly he made out the sound of Ron's voice bringing him out of his retrieve. "So the were no marks on his figure?"
"Not externally, at first we thought it was the killing curse but then a closer inquiry showed he had a lode of internal injury's as though the had been a shockwave given off from a light touch. Are you guys getting at what that hints to" Amy said to a suddenly shocked crowd.
"The only 'thing' that could do that" started Tonk's "in an attack would be a,"
"HAHA came from Lestrade as he bounded over to the group, completely obvious to there sullen, serious mood, his rounded face was happily, indeed Harry noted a feeling of triumph emanating from his expression. "Well now, looks like Auror's cant find everything. Look what we found on the wall outside." To this they clamoured to the outside yard, it was still raining, but the weather didn't dampen the inspector's spirits in the slightest. "What to you think then? You see it don't you?"
At this he was gesturing to letters on the wall, letters scrawled quite clearly in, blood, Lucy's blood, a single word-
RACHE
"What do you think of that?" cried the detective, with the air of a showman. "This spot had been over looked because of course it's outside the warehouse, and the murderer has written it with the second victims blood."
"And what dose it mean now that you have found it" asked O'Riley in a depreciatory voice. "Mean? Why, it means that the writer was going to put the female name, Rachel, but must have been deterred before they had time to finish. You mark my words by the time we have this case cleared up, you find that a woman named Rachel had something to do with it. It's all very well of you to laugh O'Riley, you may be smart but the new dogs have the sent, when all is said and done."
"I apologise, Lestrade," said O'Riley who had ruffled the portly inspector's demeanour with her uncharacteristic explosion of laughter. "You certainly have the clue, but I'm going to go back inside now, where the case actually took pace, besides, its cold out here"
They trudged back, into the cover of the warehouse, solemn in their sprits and set looks on their faces.
"So, I trust we all know what did this?" asked O'Riley when they were safely out of earshot "and that blundering fool has misinterpreted the lead." Again this was met by a downcast nodding.
"Well on to the last casualty, she's lucky to have made it" at this they made there way to the figure closest the entrance, she was small that much Harry could make out. A sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach increased as it dawned on him who this was.
"Shit" said Ron as they stood around the figure,
"Cho" said the pale figure of Harry, and his world went num. He swayed, and very nearly collapsed, but Tonks arms had sprung out and steadied him. "Christ Harry are you ok?" she said still propping him up and then the breath was court in her lungs as she stared into the hollow face of the man beside her.
His expression a mask of fear and pain, lined as though he had bore all the horrors of the world the eyes had lost the glow and been replaced by a willed dyeing glare. The day was cold, but Tonks knew that was not the cause of his shaking.
He was going into relapse. Ron knew the symptoms and in a hoarse worried voice said "get him out of here Tonks, he's got some medicine in one of his coat pockets, get him out into the air!"
Tonks half carried, half walked with the still trance like Harry out of the Warehouse, with its stuffy stained atmosphere into the cold embrace back outside. She knelt him down against the wet grey wall. "Come on now, its ok, just breath." And rubbed his quickly dampening back as she rummaged in his long, careworn, brown leather coat's pockets.
They were full of charms and amulets, relics and souvenirs from previous missions and cases, while not completely reliable; these tokens did weave some magic protection in mass.
The Auror's all wore them in and on their coats, jackets and belts, as the effect was similar to a light bulletproof vest. Very useful, but not so grate when one needed to find something in particular amongst the mass of items, in the second pocket however her hand came in contact with a bottle,
That was it.
She pulled the small purple bottle out of the pocket, its continence ringing and pulling out the cork spilled out two of the pills.
They were a violent red and under any other circumstance she would not of given them to any human being, not even Lestrade. But Harry's hand reached out and snatched them, another moment and they were gone.
They were out there for about 5 minutes, and slowly the ringing in Harry's thumping head faded, and his shaking cased.
"You ok now?" asked his concerned companion.
He gave a faint hint of a smile. He had heard her think that before she said it, the frail barriers of his mind had not it seemed returned, and he was soaking up stray thoughts and feelings like a pink squishy sponge. She gasped when she heard his voice.
"I've felt better"
The words rang out, Tonk's heard them, clear as day. But Harry's lips hadn't moved his thin, set mouth wasn't even open.
"Sorry" again this came with out him even moving, she also felt a sudden calm light headless wash over her, dimly aware of this aura radiating from Harry
"Harry?" Tonks asked looking down at her student, knowing what he could do but still wanting an explanation.
"The medicine's kicking in, but my minds a little off the rails" was the response, a sheepish grin spreading over Harry's worn face. "Don't worry ill have my Ox and Leg under control in about a minute."
By Ox and Leg Tonks got the full picture. Knowing, he was referring to Occlumency and Legilimency. She had been hearing his voice quite clearly in her head and that his Calm light-headed mood was rubbing off on her.
Occlumency, an official view, was the art of magically defending the mind against external penetration, sealing it against magical intrusion. Basic Occlumency involved clearing the mind of thought and emotion. For Harry these barriers had, under emotion come dangerously thin.
On the other hand Legilimency, is the ability to extract emotions and memories from another person's mind. Although 'mind-reading' is considered a naive interpretation of the art by practitioners. Someone practising Legilimency would do this.
Indeed Harry's ability had gone past reading.
Unlike 'Ox' Using Legilimency was mostly restricted. As the Ministry a government entity full of career bureaucrats and politicians. Had no wish to have their minds read. And Harry's skills were usually monitored. Tonks knew that this collapse would not be on record however and this thought brought a larger grin to Harry's face.
"You know those drugs aren't good for you." Tonks said the grin fading from her collage's mouth.
"True, but with out it id be in St Mungo's by now" he said a slight resentment in his voice. "I'm sorry I collapsed, but it was just a little overwhelming."
"So you'll be alright?"
"Wont happen again, I've got it under control" she nodded knowing that her concern would not deter him from doing his job, nor was the next comment a surprise. "Could you go? It's harder with others minds intruding" Tonks got up feeling his mood, tired and edgy.
"K will send Ron,"
"Out In 10?" Harry finished, for her.
Tonks went back in to the others and Harry, felt a sudden quiet, the voices had gone for the moment.
He sat back and looking up at the overcast sky felt the rain landing on his face cooling his forehead and blurring his vision as large drops landed on his dark green glasses. As he sat on the cold slightly mossy concrete he aloud his mind to wonder as he sorted his thoughts and memories back into the subconscious.
He remembered,
It was meant to be his 7th year at Hogwarts but he had left, unsure, disillusioned but resolute about what he had to find, the piece's of that broken soul that riddle had scattered. It was as he was nearing the end of this quest, that he had found the book.
It was old, a relic form about 3 centuries ago, thickly bound in black leaver and under some floor boards in Grimmauld Place, a note left from his godfather, found in one of the desk draws had led him to the discovery. The book seemed to have been a diary of a witch, one it seemed who was interested in the mix of runes and their power when affixed to the human sprit.
It was a long shot, but in that book Harry saw a glimmer of hope, he had only started translating the tome, before coming across the use of 'mental conducts.' A grin came back to a sad face as he raised his left hand to the sky, the coat falling back to show the circle inscribed on his hand, the many pointed star tattooed inside of the circle, minute, ancient words and symbols inscribed along the lines.
It had been a dark night when he gained this, the power, and curse.
He had followed the instructions in the book to the letter. Had the room laid out, inscribed with marks of magical energy, his sprit ready. Lightning flashed at the windows as he presented his hand.
The was a tearing sound.
The room seemed to vibrate.
Thoughts came up before him like a twisted rosary, over and over again,
"And he shall have a power the dark lord knows not!"
"Anyway, one of them grabbed Ginny's foot, I used the Reductor Curse and blew up Pluto in his face."
As he fell through the ancient doorway and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind and then fell back into place.
"You're a wizard Harry, and thumping good one id say"
Harry saw a man lying before him, pale-skinned, slightly freckled, with a mop of fair hair.
"Kill the spare"
A white void and then the Hospital wing at Hogwarts, Ginny asleep at the side of his bed.
He had been in a coma for 6 weeks, and had been found nearly dead in a blasted room, with the mark ice cold on his hand.
It was not long before his new abilities began to manifest, at first it was small, when his hand came into contact with people he herd whispers, soon had visions, and then control over their actions, there vision and minds. This was the force he had now with which to fight back, and it was not long before he used them.
In the closing stages on the war the ministry had come under direct assault, with out Dumbledore, Tom ran amok. In these dark times even the two clear sides seemed to divide, as factions everywhere fought one another.
It came to a head upon the old ministers death, in that very office, Snape made his unexpected defiant, sacrifice holding the dark lord in his death-through not much, but enough for Harry to touch him, the resulting battle off minds blasted, and for lack of a better term killed, Riddle. But even with the Runes guard, the forces mentally crippled Harry, denting his guard, scaring his mind.
3 weeks later he came out of a coma in the hospital wing, Ginny again asleep by the side of the bed.
The was a sudden shadow looming over him,
"You ok?" Ron Swam into focus offing Harry a cup of coffee.
"Yea never better" came his sardonic reply, but he gratefully took the cup.
"You ready to, walk with us, the 'sane' and 'normal' members of the public?" Ron asked, trying to inject some humour into the situation, he was always like that, which was one reason he and Harry got on so well.
Harry gave thumbs up his face hidden behind the quickly drained cup of coffee.
As they walked in, and Harry dried himself down with his wand, Ron brought him up to speed.
"She, got hit hard, claw right in the gut, then spun round with a slash along the arm, she lost a lot of blood from that, finely a blow to the head broke the neck, it's no small miracle that she served."
"So despite the most injuries she made it?"
"Yep, she was wearing a charm of sorts, family Harlem, it was a simple protection, but it saved her life."
Harry gave a weary shrug, "you know I can't understand why more Regs don't have these sorts of things, they save lives?"
"It's not compulsory, besides many in that office don't have much faith in them."
As they neared Harry was glad to see that the bodies were hidden under brown thin sheets, despite his protests, another shock was not something he thought he could handle in the heavy surroundings of the derelict building.
As they came to stand in the group Amy gave Harry a smile her teacher O'Riley cast Harry a glance, satisfied she continued with the brief.
"Ok Kingsley, Ron your to go back to headquarters and get digging into the records of the victims, ill go and inform the Minster of our progress, Harry, Amy you go with Tonks and try to get witness accounts before Lestrade or Merlin help us Malfoy interferes." They nodded and Ron and Shaklebolt apparated with loud bangs.
The noise alerted the inspector and team of the Auror's rapid departure "and a confused but relieved Lestrade said "so, your off then eh? I suspect the is little you could off found."
O'Riley looked down on the relaxed Lestrade "well as it's a joint case will give you some hints, this was an ambush, and the murder was a woman, bout five feet high and in the prime of 'un'life, dainty and bare foot for her height, severally drenched in blood, merely wanted to escape the building and is quite likely a vampire."
To this the Ministry regulars looked dumfounded, and Lestrade sputtered out "but, but the writing"
"Ah yes, clearly a faint to put us off, and Lestrade I wouldn't go rounding up poor girls Named Rachel, as RACHE is the German for Revenge" and with a roguish laugh she apparated from the room.