Chapter 15

"Said the king to the people everywhere, listen to what I say
Pray for peace, people everywhere!
Listen to what I say
The Child, the Child, sleeping in the night
He will bring us goodness and light."
Song - Do You Hear What I Hear?, by Foreign Fields

15 December 2005

Harry

"They went that way!"

Harry turned down an alley in central London, dodging tourists as he chased the suspect. Whoever they were, they were freaking fast, and Harry was struggling to keep up. He was too close — and the streets were too crowded — to Apparate, and it'd been ages since he'd been in a foot chase.

Then Harry turned a corner, only to trip over Neville as he stood still, staring at a row of doors behind him before a dead end. "He had to have gone in one."

"Or Apparated away."

"Cover me," Harry said quietly, waiting for Neville to start casting the Muggle repelling spells that would keep prying eyes off him. They included spells to cloud the surveillance cameras, which were becoming more and more common around London after the Muggle terrorist attacks of the previous few years.

Once Neville had it under control, which took only seconds, Harry began to weave his own tracking spells, looking for traces of magic. "Here! On the door. Unlocking spell, I'm assuming."

Neville hurried over and paused, motioning for Harry to go high as he'd go low once the door was open. Harry agreed before pulling the door slowly open.

They were in the back of a home goods shop, the stockroom lined with shelves of linens and pottery, but there was no sign of their quarry. Wands out but discreetly tucked against their arms, they made their way through to the main shop floor, easily skirting past the office window and the woman counting money inside.

"I think we've lost him," Neville said quietly, his voice now only inches from Harry's ear. "If he made it out there, we'll never be able to tell who he is."

Harry peaked around the corner, then back at Neville and grinned. "Unless he's A: Stupid enough to not dress like an actual Muggle, and B: Mesmerised by all the Muggle stuff."

"No way," Neville gasped, looking for himself. "Okay, you go cut off the front; I'll approach from this way, and we'll just take him quietly. No one else will be any the wiser."

"Perfect." Harry slipped through the curtain and through the meandering aisles of the shop, positioning himself discreetly between the suspect and the door. Once Harry was in place, Neville nodded and approached. The man in question wasn't large, near to Harry's own 5'10". He was lanky in that way most associated with those not long out of their adolescence, and he had wisps of brown hair sticking out from beneath this stocking cap.

"Merry Christmas," Neville said cheerfully, putting his hand on the kid's — Harry was pretty sure the term kid was going to end up applying here — shoulder.

The kid jumped, then without looking around, bolted towards the front door of the shop. And right into Harry.

They both went down hard, but Harry rolled with him, getting the kid beneath him and gaining control of the situation. The kid kept scrambling, though, kicking and shouting, drawing the attention of everyone in the shop and landing more than a few punches, one of them across Harry's jaw.

"Fuck. Just give it up, kid. You're under arrest. We'll talk more when we're someplace private."

The kid froze, then slowly turned his head to look up at Harry. Harry could see the moment the boy recognised him. The struggling stopped, and he closed his eyes in defeat. "I punched Harry Potter," the kid moaned. "Oh Merlin, I'm going to Azkaban, aren't I?"

Harry almost felt bad for the kid, but his jaw fucking hurt. "Shut up and don't say anything until we get out of here, okay? You're already in enough trouble."

Neville was fixing the mess Harry and the kid had made — which really only amounted to a few fallen towels from a table — while showing his badge and talking to the shop owner, promising to cover any damages. Harry placed the kid in Muggle-looking handcuffs, handcuffs that just so happened to prevent the wearer from using magic, and escorted him to the door.

Once outside, the kid began to talk, and Harry wished he could go back to the silence. His head was pounding from the fall and subsequent punches. "I'm sorry I hit you, Mr Potter, sir. I didn't realise it was you. I just was trying to get away and I was so scared that I didn't pay attention."

"Shut up. Please."

"Can I get your autograph when this is over? My little sister loves you. I mean, I think you're cool and stuff, but my little sister has pictures of you all over her wall. She's fourteen and I could totally give it to her for Christmas and be the best brother ever."

Harry rolled his eyes. "What's your name?"

"Caleb. Caleb Martin. Oh, shit. Wait, I should probably be quiet until I talk to my lawyer, right? That's what they always do in the books."

A chuckle from Harry's side let him know Neville had finally joined them. "Ready to get to the Apparition point? Looks like we'll have our case wrapped up by the end of the night."

Harry cringed. "I already missed Teddy's school nativity play, so let's hope you're right. Then, at least I'll have time to make it up to him."

"Oh, man. I love Christmas plays!" the kid butted in.

"Well, you ruined this one for me, so you owe me a confession," Harry growled, ushering the young man to the nearby Apparition point in the same alley they'd run through earlier.

"Uh, yeah, well…" The kid looked worried, his eyes darting around him.

Harry got the feeling this wasn't going to be as easy as he'd hoped.


Two hours later, and he was sincerely pissed off.

The boy, Caleb, was exactly what Harry had thought him to be. He was barely eighteen years old, fresh out of Hogwarts. He was a Hufflepuff, was a whiz at Charms, wore a size ten shoe, had three sisters, one brother, and liked grape bubble gum. Harry was pretty sure he could write the kid's life story at this point, all except for one set of details.

"So, you like Charming broken items and fixing them."

"Oh, yeah, it's so much fun. And Muggle stuff is the best because I'm not fighting against the residual magic already applied to whatever it is."

"And you freely admit that you've been fixing the items in people's homes."

"What?"

Harry threw up his hands in disgust. "Not this again." Harry looked at the lawyer, who looked equally frustrated, then at Neville.

He turned to the lawyer. "Can you talk to him? I need a break."

He stormed into the hallway outside the interrogation room, Neville right behind him, then scrubbed his hands through his hair and let out a little scream.

"He's clearly involved," Head Auror Robards commented from his spot behind the observation window.

"Of course he is!" agreed Harry. "We actually have someone who looks just like him on video at one of the houses that were broken into, and we caught him fencing a ring that matches one of the missing items."

Neville grunted. "Which he claims he was just getting fixed by the jeweller since a diamond was missing and he wanted to replace it for the woman before returning it."

"He can't be this stupid, can he?"

"I don't think he's stupid," Neville said thoughtfully. "He's not giving up any other names, is he? He knows he's caught and is trying to get off lightly, and he's doing all he can to avoid implicating anyone else. But there have to be at least three others involved."

"Well, he can tell us about the time he lost a tooth playing Quidditch, but he can't actually confess to the crimes or give us any names of the others'. This is a fucking waste of time."

"Harry, calm down. We're closer now than we've been since this whole thing started. We'll investigate the hell out of this kid and figure it out."

Robards pushed away from the wall where he'd been leaning. "Slap a tracking spell on him and set him loose. Give him a day or two to get comfortable and sure of himself, then see where he goes."

Harry considered. That wasn't a half-bad idea. They should be able to track their little Brownie ring that way and end this before Christmas. "Yes, sir. Thank you for the suggestion."

Robards nodded and walked away, leaving Harry and Neville alone.

"Now, will you have someone look at your face? It looks terrible."

Harry moved his fingers to his aching jaw. "It's not broken. I'd know if it was. It's just sore and bruised. But yeah, I'll get someone to put some paste on it before I go home so it's not visible. It won't fix the pain, obviously, but I'd rather Draco not see it like this."

"Probably a good call. I don't want to know what he'd do to this kid if he thought he hurt you."

Harry snorted. "What is this kid wrapped up in? He seems so nice. Annoying as hell, but nice."

"What's the Muggle saying Hermione's always quoting? 'The way to hell is paved with good intentions?'"

Harry sighed. "Yeah." He let his head fall back onto the wall.

"I'm really sorry you missed Teddy's nativity play, though. I'm sure he was adorable."

Harry glanced at his watch. "He'll be back with Andromeda and sound asleep by now."

"You'll go see him in the morning." Neville patted his shoulder. "I'll take care of warrant for the tracking spell and get him out of here. You get your face fixed and go home."

Harry nodded and walked down the hallway before pausing and turning to his partner. "Nev?"

"I'll miss you, you know. It won't be the same with a different partner."

Neville blushed just a little, which lightened Harry's mood considerably. "I'll still see you. We're having a Gryffindor party night tomorrow, for Merlin's sake. I'm not disappearing from the planet when I leave."

"I know. Just thought I should make sure you knew."

"Thanks, Harry. I'll miss you too."


Harry's head was throbbing as he crawled into bed. His left cheekbone and jaw felt like they'd been pummelled, which he supposed they had. The kid had a good punch for being so scrawny.

"You're home," Draco said, his voice groggy. He rolled over to Harry and ran a gentle hand along his arm. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. We caught a lead. Literally."

The eyebrow Harry could see above the pillow shot up, making him smile. "Wow. That's great."

"Yeah, well, the kid won't talk and we aren't ready to force it. We're going to watch him and see what he does. But he's just a kid, barely eighteen."

"You were just a kid too. Not even eighteen."

"It's hardly the same."

"No, it's not." He drew Harry into his warm arms, letting Harry's head rest on his shoulder. "What time is it?"

"Half-past two. How was the play?"

Harry could hear the smile in Draco's voice when he spoke. "He was the best shepherd ever. I'll let you see the memory tomorrow."

Harry's throat clenched tightly. "Thank you. I wish I'd been there. I hate missing things."

"It's going to happen. Just get this case closed so you can enjoy the rest of the holiday, yes?"

"I love you."

Draco dropped a kiss on Harry's head in response and rolled him over so they could spoon. Harry relaxed for the first time all night. Then he bumped his jaw. "Fuck!"

"Harry…did you hurt yourself?"

Well, shit.


A/N: So I know this wasn't the fluffiest of chapters, but Harry does need to get this case solved. The guy can't only celebrate Christmas for an entire 25 days. 😁