Chapter 8

Severus had whisked Harry home in a muggle taxi for an emergency hot chocolate Over chocolate and bread rolls he had allowed Harry to talk out his fears: too soon, haven't finished the house, haven't qualified, Ginny's career has barely started. Eventually, Harry ran out of steam.

"I take it you were not trying for a baby?" said Severus.

Harry shrugged "Not really, well on and off "

"There is no on and off Harry," said Severus severly. "Clear decisions are needed in this sort of situation."

Harry nodded and lowered his eyes.

"Mrs Potter was keen?" surmised Severus more gently.

"Mrs Weasley was really keen," said Harry still gazing at his hot chocolate.

Damn the woman. He would not have brooked such interference if he had been around.

"And that put pressure on Ginny?"

Harry nodded.

"Harry you and Ginny are about to take on an enormous responsibility. You must act like the responsible adults that you are and assert yourselves."

"Wow," said Harry "That is the first time you have ever called me responsible."

"Now is certainly the moment to prove me right," said Severus. "Parenting is critical."

"Yes, look at Voldemort."

"Yes indeed," agreed Severus. "You must give this all you have got. The first thing you need to do is go home."

"No," said Harry firmly. "Not until this is cleared up."

"Harry, your first duty is to your wife."

"My secondment still has a couple of weeks to run, "pointed out Harry. "I must complete it in order to qualify as a full auror."

Severus relented. "Alright, stay until the secondment is done but not a day more."

Harry's mouth set in a frim line but he refrained from responding. He took another gulp of hot chocolate.

"Come on then," said Harry jumping up. "If we only have two weeks, we need to get a move on."

"You are going out?"

"I'm off to headquarters to check on the progress of the investigation. I'll be back in a couple of hours and we will decide what to do next."

Before Severus could protest, Harry was out of the door and striding swiftly down the street.

It was an hour and half before he heard Harry at the door, but when he had entered Severus could see he had lost none of his energy.

"I need a shower," he said "Then we need to go back to Berlin."

"To the university?"

"Yep, Peck has got us an appointment with the Registrar for this afternoon- 5pm. "

"We will need to hurry," observed Severus. "We cannot apparate in your condition."

"I'll only be a jiffy in the shower," promised Harry.

"I will put some coffee in a flask, "muttered Severus. "I need something to get me through another tedious train journey to Berlin, unless you feel up to taking the floo?"

Harry thought for a moment and then reluctantly shook his head.

Less than thirty minutes later they were on their way to the Banholt. Severus wondered if he should buy some sort of season ticket to cut down on the cost. Once they were comfortably seated in a carriage of their own, Harry gave Severus a readout of his latest visit to headquarters.

"So, I had a half hour chat with Peck that's what took me so long. He spent the first twenty minutes checking I was really ok."

"Did not want to explain to Shacklebolt that they had killed the Ministry of Magic's white hope for the future," commented Severus perceptively.

"Yeah, I've seen Mrs Weasely more relaxed," Harry agreed. "However, he eventually calmed down enough for us to have a proper conversation about the investigation. He has sent Hanna to interview the family on the basis that she knows them and will be a friendly face. If they find something that looks like a lead, we can go back and play the heavy. In the meantime, he agreed that based on what we had found in Lubricus'apartment we should pay a visit to the university and he duly arranged an interview." Harry rifled in his notebook "We are meeting Fudge at 5pm. You've met him haven't you? What was he like?"

"I am afraid he reminded me of our Fudge, they are distant cousins."

"Great. Well that's something to look forward to, "groaned Harry.

Severus unscrewed his flask of coffee. "Lets' fortify ourselves," he suggested.

Once they arrived at Berlin station, they disembarked and found a diagram of the city.

"We need to take a train to the station for the botanical gardens. "We can walk from there," observed Severus.

Harry turned round and scanned the boards "Platform 8."

The journey to the Botanical gardens station took about twenty minutes through the outskirts of Berlin. Harry peered out of the window eagerly.

"We need to pick up the pace," warned Severus as he stepped onto the platform. "It is 1630, and we have a 15 minute walk."

It was a pleasant, if swift, walk through outer part of Berlin. It was much quieter than the central area, more trees less concrete. Harry looked longingly at the signs to the Botanical gardens.

"Hermione took me and Ron to the ones near London. "

"Kew Gardens," said Severus. "Yes I went many years ago. Very impressive. Lots of interesting plants."

"I bet you took a few surreptitious cuttings, didn't you?" accused Harry.

Severus shrugged non-concomitantly. "They have some rare varieties that are very useful in some of the tricker potions."

"We could go for a quick look at this one," said Harry hopefully.

"Not today Potter. Another time maybe. We cannot afford to be late for Fudge."

"Yeah, I know your right. I thought this secondment would be a bit of a holiday you know. But it is worse than auror training."

"I doubt your career will ever be peaceful Potter, you are not destined for a quiet life."

Harry pulled a face and then smiled. "Still better than being bored eh?"

"Infinitely," agreed Severus whilst privately reflecting that he could live with a lot of boredom at the moment.

"Wow," said Harry as they entered the square of the central university. Greying white roman style buildings surrounded a green lawn crisscrossed by paths. "Impressive."

"Not unpleasant," agreed Severus.

"I think we need to head for that building with the columns. Peck told me to go to the main reception."

"Are you certain we could not just have used the floo?"

"Well I was advised against that at the moment as well, but infact they are not connected to the floo network. Peck told me they were very security conscious. As they are surrounded by so many muggle students and professors they do everything they can to limit magical leakage. Apparently, they behave as muggle like as possible."

"That sort of disguise does not usually work well for wizards. Most have a tendency to get it dreadfully wrong."

Harry nodded thinking of Mr Weasley.

"Apparently, they have been doing it for many years so they have built up a great deal of expertise and of course universities tend to accept eccentricities as normal."

"True," agreed Severus.

"Five minute to five. We'd better go in."

In the event Harry did not need to ask for anyone. As they approached reception, Fudge appeared. Severus was careful to show no trace of recognition.

"Mr Potter?" inquired the Registrar.

Harry nodded politely.

"I'm Fredrick Fudge. A pleasure to meet you. I have obviously heard a great deal about you. I thought it best that I come to meet you and reception. Avoid any unforeseen complications."

"That was very thoughtful of you, "commented Harry. May I introduce Wilhelm Braun."

Severus shook hands briefly with Fudge, resenting his over forceful handshake but restraining himself from responding in kind.

"Let's go up to my office so we can talk in private."

Fudge's office was right at the top of the building. Small windows but a wonderful view. Harry craned his head to admire it.

The office surprised Severus. He had expected something much grander. More like Albus' study. Instead the room reminded him of Scrooge's counting house in a Dickens' Christmas Carol. His mother had read him the story one Christmas when his father had been away on business. The room was full of filing cabinets, drawers, large record books and scrolls.

"All the administration staff are at the top of the building. The rooms are small, but we have avoided going open plan and the views are wonderful."

Harry nodded. "Are a lot of the admin staff magical?"

"My assistant Crassus and three more junior staff. The rest are muggles."

"And among the academic staff?"

"A more significant number," said Fudge. "The university teaches, potions, charms, transfiguration as part of the science faculty, arithmancy and we have a historian in the history department."

"No literature course?" asked Severus surprised.

"Distance learning only, "said Fudge. "I'm afraid there just isn't the demand for it these days. If we are not careful, wizarding poetry will become a lost art."

Which would be no great loss, thought Severus. Albus had been adamant that the subject was too woolly for Hogwarts. Binns had taught some of the old poetry as part of the history of magic. The students had no doubt slept through those as they had through the rest of the course.

"Do have a seat," said Fudge, indicating some hardback chairs in front of his desk.

Severus and Harry sat down.

"Well Mr Potter as I said it is a pleasure to meet you. Apart from the public legend, I have heard a great deal about you from my cousin, Corneluis."

"Of course," said Harry. "I hope he is well? "

"Like so many, his life hhas been disrupted by that unfortunate matter with Voldemort."

Which was one way of putting it, thought Severus.

"It has left him in an uncomfortable position but things are getting back to normal I understand."

Harry smiled but said nothing. Sensing he would get nothing further from Harry on the situation in England, Fudge changed the subject.

"Perhaps you could explain why the auror department in Gottingen needed to see me so quickly?"

"Of course," said Harry sitting up straighter in his chair. "A few days ago the body of a former auror, Klaus Lubricus, was found. We understand that he was retained by Berlin University to conduct an investigation. You were the signature on the contract."

Fudge was genuinely surprised, concluded Severus.

"I am sorry to hear that. How did he die?"

Harry ignored the question. "He had a contract here?"

A flicker of annoyance crossed Fudge's face. "Yes, he did. I retained him about six months ago."

Harry opened his notebook "Why was he retained?"

Fudge paused. "This is a delicate matter, perhaps I should speak to the university lawyers."

"That is your privilege and we can, of course, get a warrant or we can proceed with this private conversation," responded Harry calmly.

Fudge licked his lips. "I take it his death was suspicious?"

Harry paused and then nodded.

"He died in Gottingen, I take it as it is being handled by yourselves rather than Berlin?"

"The aurors only have an outpost in Berlin," pointed out Harry avoiding the question.

Fudge looked down at his pad. After a minute's silence he looked at Harry "Do proceed."

"Why did you retain him?" asked Harry again.

"We had discovered a problem at the university?"

"What sort of problem?"

Fudge licked his lips. "With the university finances."

"Go on," encouraged Harry gently.

"We had noticed that we seemed to be spending more that we should be doing."

"You had brought him in to do an efficiency study?" said Harry in surprise.

Fudge supressed a small smile. "Sadly, no."

"You feared funds were being embezzled." said Severus quietly.

Fudge nodded. "It was very subtle. Not big sums, just everything seemed to be costing us around 10% more than it should have done."

Harry still looked confused. "Could prices have not gone up faster than you had expected."

"That, was of course, was what we were meant to think," agreed Fudge. "And we noticed nothing amiss at first we just seemed to be getting through the budget much quicker than normal. But when we came to do the end of year accounts we realised that all prices seemed to have risen around 10% across the board so we spent much more than we had been allocated. As you know inflation is low at the moment so it seemed unlikely that everything would be shooting up 10% more. That is when we launched an internal investigation." Fudge paused and took a sip from a glass of water on his desk.

Harry nodded encouragingly." What did the internal investigation conclude?"

"That someone was distorting the billing process so that when the bills arrived here from all parts of the university they appeared 10% higher than they actually were."

"I don't understand, how would that benefit anyone?"

Fudge sighed "It was a very clever spell, the bills here appeared 10% higher than they should have done. We transferred those amounts to our suppliers but when the money was transferred only the real amount on the original invoice was paid. The remaining 10% was syphoned off to a private account."

"Was that account in the Cayman islands?" asked Severus.

Fudge nodded. "We tried, of course, to find the holder of the account but it proved impossible. The Caymann Island authorities refused to tell us anything. "

"It was a clever scheme," observed Harry.

"Very,"agreed Fudge. "We would have noticed the removal of 10% of the gold from our bank vault. But creaming the money off in this way attracted far less attention. If we hadn't gone over budget we might not have noticed. "

"How long had this be going on for?" asked Harry

"We don't know," admitted Fudge uneasily.

"Was this the first year it had happened?" inquired Severus shrewdly.

"We don't know that either," conceded Fudge."We are reveiwing previous years account. My assistant can give you more details. "

"So Lubricus was retained to investigate?"

"That's right," confirmed Fudge. "We could have called the police but we wanted to avoid a scandal as.."

"As you feared it was one of the staff," concluded Harry.

Fudge nodded.

"Did you have any suspicions?"

Fudge shook his head "No, my assistant may have done, I tend to deal with strategic planning rather than the day to day side of business. "

"So what did Lubricus find?"

"It was not an easy task. A very powerful magical spell was needed to perform this sort of complex financial fraud. He began by talking to all the staff who were budget holders as they had the sort of inside knowledge of the system needed to perpetuate this kind of fraud successfully. He also flew to the Cayman Island, at out expanse, "added Fudge with a grimace.

"He tried to get the banking authorities in Caymans to provide more details of the account holders."

"Yes, "confirmed Fudge. "He was due to report to me a week or so ago. We had a quick firecall when he returned from the Caymans. He said that it had been an enlightening trip and he had some leads he wanted to follow up. He was due to come and see me at the end of last week. I was annoyed when he missed our appointment. The university is paying him a large monthly retainer, which in these circumstances, we can barely afford."

"So you have no idea what he found in the Cayman Islands? "

Fudge shook his head.

"Is there any more you can tell us?" asked Harry

Fudge shook his head again. "Would you like to talk to my assistant? He has a better understanding of some of the details."

"That would be very helpful "agreed Harry.

"Do have some coffee while you wait, "said Fudge. He clicked his fingers and a house elf appeared holding a tray with coffee and a selection of cakes.

"Great," said Harry his auror persona slipping for a moment and the hungry young man appearing.

"I thought you eschewed magical trappings here in the interests of security," said Severus snidely.

Fudge appeared unoffended. "That is largely true but we draw the line at living without house elves in an institution like this. Who would do the cooking?" With that, Fudge swept out of the room.

"Good to see that he is not allowing security to get in the way of his personal comforts," muttered Severus sarcastically.

"True, "said Harry. "But there is no point in letting the coffee and cakes go to waste," he added as he prepared to tuck in.

Severus relaxed and reached for a cup.

For several minutes Severus was able to enjoy his coffee in peace and quiet whilst Harry sampled the different cakes. Fortunately, there was an abundance of napkins to clean up excess cream and jam. Severus contented himself with a small pastry.

"You don't have to eat them all Potter. It won't be considered impolite if you leave some."

"Yeah, but I don't want to upset these German house elves."

Severus rolled his eyes.

"So, "said Harry swallowing his like piece of cake. "What do you think?"

"Of Fudge's account?"

Harry nodded.

"Well it fits with what we have found so far. The trip to the Cayman's etc. But I have never heard of a spell that would do what he describes."

Harry nodded. "Me neither but fraud isn't my speciality."

"We could do with some expert input," said Severus "Do the Gottingen aurors have a financial expert?"

Harry shook his head. "Don't worry we will ask Ron. We'll get in touch with him later this evening. He knows all about this stuff"

Severus looked a little confused.

"Bill's in Gringotts and he has taken a specaisl course in fraud, " Harry reminded him.

As Severus nodded, the door at the back of the room reopened. Fudge entered followed by the man Severus had been introduced to as Fudge's assistant at the wandlore society. As Severus recalled the chap, who was extremely well covered, was also working on some famous mathematical hypothesis.

"Crassus, can I introduce Mr Harry Potter, currently working with the Gottingen aurors."

Crassus smiled warmly. "Mr Potter, I am delighted to meet you, the wizarding world owes you great debt."

Harry made the usual depreciating noises.

"I have some business to attend to you in the library "said Fudge. Severus then remembered that Fudge was also the librarian of the university's collection of magical texts. "Professor Crassus will, I am sure, be able to fill you in on any additional information on our problem. Lubricus kept him in close touch with the investigation. "

"Thank you Profesoor Fudge," Harry gave a polite bow.

Fudge nodded and disappeared.

"Do sit down, " said Harry to Crassus. "Did Professor Fudge explain why we are here?"

"He explained that the ex-auror, who we had retained to look into our little local difficulty, had been murdered. But I cannot imagine that anyone here would be involved even if they were guilty of fraud."

"Were the sums of money involved large?" asked Severus.

"10% on top of a budget of 5 tons of gold."

"A significant amount," concluded Severus.

"Did the problem only start this year? Professor Fudge said you were conducting some additional investigations?" inquired Harry flipping open his notebook,

" I have started to look at previous years. I am afraid to say that it appears that we have also been defrauded in the previous two years. "

"How did this go unnoticed?" demanded Severus.

"Two reasons," said Crassus promptly. "The rake off was much smaller in previous years only about 3% and it did not lead us to go over budget."

"Someone has got greedy" said Severus.

Crassus nodded, "That was my conclusion."

"Can you tell me about Lubricus' investigation?"

"Well Professor Fudge retained him in May after the end of year board meeting and our discovery of the original loss. Lubricus arrived and interviewed everyone."

"Who's everyone?" asked Harry.

"Professor Fudge, myself, the head of science, mathematical sciences and history of magic."

"Why those three?" inquired Harry.

"Because they were the budget holders."

"Could it been someone else?"

Crassus nodded his head rapidly, "Anyone who had knowledge of the financial system. The most likely suspect of course was me in the finance department."

"Was it you?" asked Harry bluntly.

Crassus shook his head, "Lubricus investigated me pretty thoroughly and cleared me. Professor Fudge will confirm it."

"Do you know if he had anyone in mind?" asked Severus.

Crassus nodded "I think so, I saw him briefly after he got back from the Cayman's. He seemed excited, energised. I spoke to him on a firecall and he was due to speak to Professor Fudge the following week."

"But he never turned up."

Crassus nodded "Professor Fudge was really put out because his diary is very busy and he felt he had wasted an hour." He paused for a moment. "Was he dead, is that why he didn't turned up?"

Harry hesitated and then nodded. "We believe so but our investigations are still at an early stage. "

"Poor man," said Crassus. "What a waste, he was so full of life and keen to drive forward his contracting business. I hope you get whoever did it."

Harry nodded "We will do our best. Now, is it possible for you to arrange interviews with the people Lubricus spoke to?"

Crassus thought for a moment. "The easiest way to meet them all would be to introduce you at high table tonight. Could you stay until then?"

Severus assumed Harry would simply demand Crassus take them to their respective offices immediately.

Harry paused for a moment. "Yes that would be great, providing we can interview each one separately after dinner."

Crassus nodded eagerly "They are all night owls. They often stay chatting in the common rooms for several hours."

"Good. What time is high table?"

"About 7 o clock.""

Harry glanced at his watch and then at Severus. "I am sure that we can wandered round Berlin for an hour or so."

Severus gave short nod.

Crassus smiled. "Great, I'll let the kitchens and the Regsitrar know."

Five minutes later they were back on the pavement outside the university.

"I am surprised you agreed to that," said Severus.

"I'm sorry," said Harry immediately. "Did you need to get back to Gottingen?"

"No, I just assumed that due process would mean you needed to interview everyone separately. "

"Oh, we will," Harry reassured him "But after dinner. Kingsley always says that it can be very useful to watch suspects interact with each other in a formal setting. It can be very revealing."

Severus nodded impressed. "So how would you like to use our spare time?"

"Hermione said I really ought to see the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag building if I was in Berlin."

"Important buildings in muggle history, " agreed Severus "But not today I'm afraid. It is at least 40 minutes back to the centre of Berlin and we only have just over an hour. "

"Yeah we don't want to be late for high table," agreed Harry. "So what about the botanical gardens?"

Severus' eyes gleamed. "That would be acceptable" he acknowledged.

Harry groaned. "You're going to steal lots of rare clipping aren't you?"

"I am going to study the holdings very carefully," agreed Severus.

"Well just don't get us arrested by the muggle police as that will be hard to explain to the office."

"There's no chance that will happened, "said Severus, the old arrogant Severus Snape appearing for a moment.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Come on then, but I'm not hiding dirty clippings in my robes during dinner," Harry warned.

"That will not be necessary," promised Severus. "I can do better than that."

The gardens were beautiful maybe not quite as good as Kew but full of fascinating specimens. Harry accompanied Severus on his explorations for about twenty minutes but he soon began to fidget as Severus paused to look at yet another plant. Severus was about to snap and tell him to grow up, when he glanced at Harry's face. It was very pale and Severus recalled that it had only been that morning that the boy had been discharged from hospital.

"Maybe we should have just gone for a coffee, "he murmured putting his hand on Harry's forehead.

"I'm fine Severus, I could just do with a power nap."

"Power nap?"

"Yeah a quick forty minutes in afternoon."

No wonder appointments with the Minister for Magic were so hard to get, thought Severus. He was spending every afternoon asleep on that comfortable looking sofa in his office. Nice for some. Headmasters of Hogwarts certainly never had the time for an afternoon nap, not even Albus, who given his age, must certainly have needed one.

"So where do you propose to power nap?" asked Severus curiously.

Harry pointed to an areas of grass under a tree.

"They will think you have collapsed and call an ambulance, "warned Severus.

"I'll use my invisibility cloak," promised Harry.

For the next half hour Severus indulged himself. He wandered through open gardens and lawns and into the huge majestic greenhouses. He transfigured a log into a small box and he collected valerian for headaches, Golden Pothos which was useful in a mild sleeping drought, fungi for protection against flu. The box was nearly full when he looked at his watch and realised almost thirty minutes had passed. He headed back towards the tree where Harry had planned to take his nap. There was no sign of the boy. Severus sent a searching spell across the lawn. A small blue flare indicated the presence of a small lump. Severus targeted the area with a tickling spell.

"Stop it," said a sleepy voice a minute later.

Severus cancelled the spell and a head appeared from underneath the invisibility cloak.

"Time to go Potter."

Harry stretched. "Is any of the garden still intact?"

"I am well stocked for next winter," admitted Severus. "Come, I do not want to be late for high table. We will need to freshen up before we meet people."

Severus turned and headed for the exit. Harry staggered slowly after him. At the entrance to the gardens Severus placed the box next to a distinctive looking red leafed tree and cast an invisibility spell.

"We will collect it on our way to the station."