A/N: Here is the next chapter. I apologise for any mistakes I have made or missed. And I also apologise if my writing is not up to snuff. I have been a bit down lately and it may have bled into my writing.
Chapter 8: The Prodigal Son Returns
16th November 2013, Mayfair, London England
I stepped out of the shower at my hotel room at the Dorchester Hotel. The Dorchester you say? Yes, it is a rather expensive hotel, but the travel expenses that Dermott approved for me once you converted it from the American Dragots to the English Galleon and then converted to Muggle Pounds, the money was rather generous. The travel expenses were inclusive for everything, but I wasn't going to rent somewhere and then have to bother with utilities. I want to be able to come and go as I please and not have to worry about anything. I'm still getting my salary and I don't mind paying for any of my other expenses for myself such as dry cleaning, food and toiletries. I booked a room for a long stay as I really didn't know the timeline for this assignment.
While drying myself and placing out my clothes for the day, I thought about last night and that ridiculous woman 'Divinia' or whatever the hell her name was. She had said about Hermione investigating the case of this nefarious tablet, that I already knew from Dermott, but about her taking her work home with her. I wonder if I could work around that. It would require breaking in to her home, the ministry is almost certainly a no go. Even I would not be able to get in to her office or even on that level of the Ministry without being scanned and I am not going to risk that as I do not know what that would turn up as I am not an employee.
Breaking into Hermione Granger's home is most likely the only option, I am not desperate to try to take it from her off the street. That's just idiocy. This will require planning, I know she is not stupid so her home will be well protected. Question is does she reside in wizarding London or muggle? Wizarding London is at least small in size to search, but muggle London is enormous. I suspect she lives in a muggle area being a muggleborn, I need to practice using that word instead of mudblood. Blood purity doesn't seem to be as rampant as it once was back in my original time.
Still breaking into Potter's best friends place is still very risky. If I get caught, I know I'll be on my own, Dermott would not step in to save me and bring himself down, not since we are technically spying on the British Ministry. Talk about an international incident, it will have the Department of Magical Cooperation in a giant tizzy for weeks. Simply scandalous.
First, I need to find out where she lives, then plan how I'm going to pull this off. This isn't a simple break in like the muggle homes I break into for cursed objects. No this will the warded to the hilt and most likely a mix of different alarms set to go off to warn her of anyone trying to break through. I'll have to scout her place a few times and work out the best way to get in. I may try Knockturn Alley this afternoon and see if I can find any of my old contacts, I don't really want to be see going down there in broad daylight. I'll spend the day in Diagon Alley and get the lay of the land so to speak. She what is going on in wizarding Britain. While in America I never bothered keeping up with what was going on here in the aftermath of the stupid war I started. I think part of the reason why is just that I was simply too embarrassed. I don't like doing stupid things and that was a level of stupidity that I am not comfortable with. It was me but not me. My memories of that period are not great I don't know if that has to do with coming back from the dead for the third time. Yes, my first time was a rather embarrassing accident, that I will never speak of to anyone and everybody knows of the second time, when I again stupidly rushed in to kill Potter and then being killed by my own rebounding killing curse. I'm still monumentally pissed off at my former self about that, I swear these horcruxes not only took a piece of my soul but brain cells as well. Or if it has to do with having my soul renewed. Some memories are clear and other are hazy. That also be because I was insane and didn't have many lucid moments.
I was dressed nicely in muggle designer wear. I do appreciate muggle fashion; wizarding fashion is horrendous. They have no sense of fashion at all, most of it is mismatched and seemingly from random decades. One thing I never thought I would say is that I don't like wearing wizarding robes anymore, they are annoying and hot, not practical at all. Whoever thought wearing thick heavy wool, that was rather like a blanket with sleaves was a good idea should be strung up and quartered.
I slipped my black Burberry pea coat over a charcoal grey wool sweater and dark wash Diesel jeans, paired with my black Gucci sneakers. I was comfortable and warm enough for the brisk cool weather outside as Autumn transitioned into Winter. I made sure I had my wallet which I slipped into my back pocket of my jeans, my hotel key card and my wand, which I kept in my right-side front pocket of my coat.
Diagon Alley was just as I remembered it, bustling with people, especially today being a Saturday, it was extra busy with people doing their shopping. I should check out Flourish and Blotts and the Quill shop, this will be a different experience for me coming back here after a good 40 years and with actual money I can spend. I can see Gringotts in the distance, that is one place I will never set foot into ever again. After cleaning out my vault that was it. They will know that it is me almost instantly. I still have galleons in the truck I kept all my money in, some of which are in my wallet. I need to get around the wizarding world without stepping into Gringotts. I had MACUSA exchange some of my money for me, the rest of the time I will be just using muggle money. The wizarding world is behind in that respect for large transactions it is a pain in the behind, if they could use like an EFTPOS style system like the muggles it would make life marginally easier. Who wants to carry around obscene amounts of money? I know that they have the bank slips you sign at the store, but I would rather have better control over my money. Especially if you are travelling abroad like I am now. Nothing is convenient. They haven't progressed with the time. We are still doing transactions the exact same way they have for 200 years at least. Maybe I am thinking too much like a muggle.
If I were to attain my goals, I would endeavour for the banking system to be reformed, inclusive of half-bloods and muggleborns that are born into the muggle world, and to set up preparatory schools for them rather than being thrown into this world at the age of eleven with no warning. The schools would also cater to purebloods who wanted to send their children to school early, like a muggle kindergarten. Funny I know since my alternate self was so hell bent on tearing the wizarding world apart not that long ago. I still believe we need to remain separate from the muggle world only revealing ourselves as necessary. I think the Statute of Secrecy needs to remain. There are too many muggles in the world and not enough of us.
I don't think that my plans are unreasonable and will be well received by the new generation, but certainly not by the older generation that still believe in that blood purity trash. I get many curious looks as I wander around window shopping. Merlin, the place hasn't changed at all since I was a boy. I'm interested in reading the Daily Prophet, I know the headlines are complete rubbish half the time, but they are a good indicator of what is going on in Britain. I pick up a copy out the front of their office and pay the seven sickles so I can remove the paper from the stand. I start walking again as I flick through the paper. Fashion advice and beauty tips, suggestions of where to travel, cooking recipes, new potions on the market, Quidditch statistics...apparently not much goes on here or that they care to report. Ahh here we go another report on the suspicious death of a ministry worker, that must be the Unspeakable that got himself killed, Potter's wife is pregnant for the third time, I snort I know that is false. Oh, she's now having an affair and it is a love child, this is just nonsense from this called woman Romilda Vane. I flick to the next page and it is about Hermione Granger, and her failed relationship with Ron Weasley and a list of reasons why it didn't work out. Even I must admit this woman is brutal in her assessment of Granger. I can only vaguely remember her from my alternate self's memories, but she was brilliant and kept Potter alive all through school. So, I see no reason to doubt her brilliance. Obviously, someone is jealous. I skip a few pages as I sit down at the ice cream parlour and order a double chocolate scoop. I end up on the society pages, I see Draco Malfoy with his pureblood wife Astoria Greengrass, god he looks like Abraxas. He was the one person I did call friend, perhaps he was my only friend. He certainly was the only person I confided in. My former self went completely off the deep end when he died from Dragon Pox. I knew through school that Abraxas felt more for me than was friendship. I often would see the longing looks out of the corner of my eye, that I tried not to acknowledge. Being gay in the 40's was not a done thing. I let Abraxas find comfort in me one night...it was unexpected. I knew he needed something, sensed his hurt. He was grieving the death of his parents, something that I will never understand or even claim to have understood. I let it happen, I could have stopped it, but something stopped me from doing so even now I don't know what it was. I have been with a few women over the years, but never another man. To be with one feels like it would taint that memory of us together and I have no interest in doing so.
I see Harry Potter and his wife Ginny, clearly a Weasley with that flaming red hair, and I notice the woman next to her smiling at the camera, however I could tell it was fake. She was wearing a silver dress that was glittering from the camera flashes, it was firm fitting which made her toned body look unbelievable. She had long loose curls, that were almost like waves and finished just past her shoulders, it framed her heart shaped face and expressive smokey eyes. Who was this woman? I scanned down the page for the notes under the photograph. Hermione Granger. Fuck. Damn she has changed. I felt like a slight pervert now. She is young, like 12years younger than me. I haven't had the flesh of a woman since before my former self killed Potter's parents. But looking at that intelligent sexy witch makes me want things I haven't had in a very long time.
The waitress comes over with my double chocolate scoop ice cream in a cardboard cup. She slides the cup over the small table, making sure to flutter her eyelashes and so I could see down the deep vee of her plain white t-shirt. I refused to move my eyes from hers.
"Can I help you with anything else today sir?", she tries to sound seductive. Really? She's like fucking twelve, as if I would find that attractive. I keep my face blank giving away nothing. It hides my growing annoyance. I'm not a child chaser, I kill them for leisure and when I need to blow off steam. I don't trawl for prospects in an ice cream parlour, like some creep.
"No little girl I do not require anything else", I say as tonelessly as I could muster. She flinches at 'little girl', good remind her to have more class than throwing herself at customers at lunch time on a Saturday like a common whore. She's red faced and flustered, clearly embarrassed as she should be. I take a spoonful on the chocolate ice cream and hope that it is as delicious ad I remember from so long ago. I ignore the bumbling girl, hoping my cold demeanour would be a clear dismissal.
I make plans for later today to venture down Knockturn Alley. I know of the reputations of wizards who go down there, from my time working at Borgin and Burke's. I have met some of the most unsavoury people in existence and that is saying something coming from me. I must be careful with how I approach people, I am hoping legilimency will be enough. I intend to see whether Borgin or Burke is still alive and who would know where Granger lives or direct me to who would. My back up plan is the stupid Davinia woman her brain would be easy to pick and then I can obliviate her afterwards.
My next concern was as I sit here eating my chocolate ice cream is my magical signature. This was my most prominent fear (not that Lord Voldemort is scared of anything) about returning, other than my appearance. According to Negrescu when I was doing my Mastery under him my signature had changed slightly with each subsequent horcrux. He had come to that conclusion because from the first time I had met him after I finished Hogwarts and then again when I approached him before the Battle if Hogwarts, my magic was different. Which begs the theory that the magical core the and soul are connected more than previously thought, though difficult to prove. However, my previous connection with Potter is what worries me if he ever feels my magical signature, it still maybe too close to my alternate self.
I venture down the entryway to Knockturn Alley, even as a dark wizard this place secretly gives me the creeps. It's filthy with plenty of filth occupying what little space this alley way has. There are the usual nutters talking to themselves or some invisible person next to them and down in the darkened corner the Knockturn hookers either trying to entice passer-by's or fornicating against the dirty exterior walls. I shudder in repulsion as I try to pass them.
"'Ome on pret'y boy 'ow abaaht an afternoon delight?", Came a strange sounding cockney accent beside me. I felt a hand on my shoulder. Who dares touch me? I hate when people touch me. I freeze on the spot my anger spikes at the invasion of personal space. I turn my head to the right and pierce the person with a glare that would have had Lucifer ice skating.
She smiles and my composure slips.
"Up fer i' awar not love? I could make worf yaahr while".
"Get your fucking filthy whore hands off me, or I'll cut them off along with some other body parts. Speak to me again and Ill cut your tongue out and force feed it to you. Now go back to your squalid corner of immorality and cease to exist", I gave her a particularly cruel smile showing my bright white teeth a stark unmistakable difference to her rotting blackened teeth half falling out of her mouth. Her blue eyes widen as she stumbles back, tripping on her rags that she is wearing for clothes and falling on her bum. I look around with a challenge in my eyes, daring anyone to say something. They don't.
Satisfied I enter Borgin and Burke's, not the least bit surprised that they still haven't learnt or used a dusting spell. There must be dust an inch thick on some items. I sigh this is going to make me sneeze.
The door closes surprisingly well behind me and the little bell rings attached to the top corner of the door, letting presumably whomever is working that someone has entered the shop. Aside from the bell breaking the silence, the shop is empty and quiet. I snort in amusement looking around. The shop has not changed in 60 years. I feel a sense of Deja-vu come over me, it's like I never left.
"I'm coming, I'm coming don't get cha wand in a knot", a muffled voice came from behind the curtain separating the counter area with the back-stock room. I move closer, until I was in the centre of the store and I slipped both my hands into each jacket pocket, my right hand clutching my wand tightly. The curtain flung back and an older version of the Borgin I remember came shuffling out backwards pulling a trolley. He turned and did a double take, eyes widening in surprise and then turning into a sly devious smile.
"Tom m'boy your back", I smirked.
"The name is Christian these days 'Tom' doesn't exist anymore", I released the grip on my wand but didn't move from where I was standing.
"Fair enough, what brings you to my humble shop?", he pushes his long scraggly hair out of his face.
"Granger where is she?", I knew he would know what I meant. Everyone thought Borgin was dumb and slow, but he was sharp as a tack and always knew the goings on in the wizarding world both upstanding and criminal.
He raised a rather hairy eyebrow at that.
"Somewhere in Battersea, don't know the exact address but it is in one of those big muggle buildings all packed in like Cruzeldumps in the middle o' winter. Gonna get some revenge on those lil shits are ya?", while revenge was very tempting, in this circumstance it was stupid. I didn't want to be found out straight away. More like come across as an unseen insidious force that has infected every facet until it was too late.
"No, I have something else in mind. You will not speak of this, I need anonymity for my plans going forward. Do I need to obliviate you Borgin?", normally I would have done it without hesitation. But he could be a good source of information. Plus, unless I wiped his entire memory, he would just keep recognising me.
"No Christian, I don't know what ya talkin' about", he looks around feigning ignorance.
"Good, I'll return when and if I need your further assistance."
Later that night I found myself back at the "Grumpy Unicorn", it was filled with Ministry employees all ripe for the picking. I scanned looking for that woman Divinia, she reminded me of Umbridge all pink and kittens although more petty than nasty. This woman was more likely to withhold your mail or not invite you to 'lunches with the girls' than to curse you so your lungs burst inside your chest. I don't know how much longer I can take this before stabbing myself repeatedly would be more appealing. Finally, she got up to go to the bathroom, I followed her discretely around the back of the pub to where the bathrooms were situated. With no one looking I shot an imperio at her. While being a powerful wizard and can hold an imperio without eye contact it was still incredibly difficult and required a lot of concentration. I made her walk over to where I was hiding in the shadows, her mind crumbled easily- such a weak-willed woman.
"Where does Hermione Granger live?", I just wanted her to give it up quickly so I could go on my way.
"Across the River Thames...and a park with a zoo...cascading...", she was making no sense. I stunned her and let the imperio drop, I grabbed her makeup encrusted face and forced my way into her mind. I didn't want to have to use Legilimency straight after an imperio, because I could potentially crack her mind like an egg, not that this world would be at a great loss from it. It took longer than I had expected, because it wasn't so much a memory, but a brief glimpse at paperwork that had her address on it. I withdrew from her mind, obliviated and then confounded her and shoved her out of my way. I was here too long, but she won't remember me, just that she was mugged on the way to the toilet.
I apparated into Battersea Park, it was too dark for muggles to notice me appear out of thin air at this time of night. I pulled out my phone and brought up Google Maps, I was a rather abnormal wizard for having a phone as most didn't like them. It was a rather needed item while doing jobs for Dermott, stealing from people, if I didn't know an address or I needed to double check something I could bring it up on Google Maps. I walked towards the nearest road and find I'm on Prince of Wales Drive, her apartment building was on the corner of Queenstown Road and Sopwith Way perhaps a ten-minute walk down the road.
It was a nice building with a reception area, her apartment was on the eighth floor. Difficult to access as I suspected. Being up so high she may not have warded her apartment. I may have to disillusion myself and sneak up the stairwell, just to scope out her apartment. I'll come back tomorrow after I have thought about it a bit more.
I hit call and call Dermott to let him know of my plan. It rings out, I never even considered the time difference. I call again and leave a message.
"Dermott, I have a plan and It will require entering Hermione Granger's apartment I'll let you know of my progress.", I stare up at her building thinking before I apparated away to Hyde Park across from the Dorchester. This was going to be interesting and an adrenalin rush, I couldn't wait.