A powerful blast had Harry banging back against the wall, his breath knocked out of him as he slid downwards. His legs splayed out in front of him, it seemed to take ages to get an idea what had just happened. His ears were ringing, his heart pounding, the adrenaline whooshing through his veins putting every sense on high alert.
A cloud of dust and debris made it hard to see. Harry coughed and sputtered, trying to clear the particles from his airways.
Beside him, his co-worker Augustina was getting back to her feet, her wand out. Ron and Muneer had been out of the range of the explosion, and ran after the suspect.
Gingerly, Harry got to his feet, and could feel that he wasn't seriously injured. He would be sore and bruised, likely a bit stiff for a few days. It would be like after his sessions with Draco, every move tinged with pain. At least these new injuries wouldn't bring up carnal memories.
Augustina was exploring the left side of the warehouse, so Harry pulled out his wand and moved to the right side. Empty crates were stacked, some fallen over from the blast and broken. Shards of glass crunched under his sturdy work boots. His eyes scanned over the industrial shelving, crammed full of bottles and ceramic pots.
Something caught his eye, and he had been in the job long enough to trust his instincts. Squatting down, he cast a Lumos spell to see better. There was a large, slumping cardboard box tucked into a corner between two shelving units with long wooden planks leaning against the wall over it.
Reaching out, Harry lifted the flap of the box. It was on it's side, the top of the box facing him, and his light made it possible to see the dirty blankets inside. His heart sank when he saw a small, ragged shoe.
"Augustina...," Harry said softly to the other auror, and she quickly came to his side. They shared a glance, and then Harry lifted the corner of the blanket. A filthy child was lying inside, curled up in a tiny ball of angular limbs and rags.
Swearing under her breath, Augustina helped Harry tug the cardboard box out of the corner, spiders and insects scuttling away from being disturbed. The child didn't stir.
Harry lifted the child while Augustina moved the box away. His heart was pounding as he performed basic first aid, and felt relieved when he could see the tiny chest moving. "Alive, barely."
Augustina passed him the emergency portkey, and Harry stood with child in his arms. In a whoosh, he was at St. Mungos, lowering his bundle to a hospital bed.
"Unconscious child we found in a potions raid. There was an explosion but I don't think he was hurt by it." Harry said quickly to the mediwitch who rushed forward.
She nodded, pushing the bed to the nearest curtained area, Harry following close behind. He cringed as she straightened the child on the bed, dropping the dirty blanket to the floor. He collected it, pulling an evidence bag from his uniform and shoving the blanket inside. The ragged clothing she removed followed after it.
"I can't even tell if it's a girl or a boy," Harry murmured.
The mediwitch was a tall, asian woman with her long hair pulled back into a high ponytail. Her emerald green robes were mostly obscured with a white coverall most of the trauma staff wore.
She flicked her dark eyes up to meet Harry's. "A girl, about six years old...," she looked down as she took the vital signs, her brow lowering in concentration.
Harry was surprised at the age. He would have said a year or two younger, the girl was so slight.
"She appears to have no injuries, but is just severely dehydrated and malnourished. Any idea about her identity?"
Shaking his head, Harry felt frustrated. "She could have been homeless, and tucked herself into the corner of the warehouse. Or maybe she is a daughter of our suspects. I will check in with my partner, see if they caught anyone we can question."
The mediwitch pulled out a basin and magically filled it with warm water. She began washing the child, her hands gentle. "I will call her Kimiko for now. It means valuable child."
Harry was touched by the gesture and the tender way the mediwitch was taking care of the child. "I'm Harry."
"Tatsuo," The young woman supplied, her eyes flicking up to his forehead.
Harry hoped his hair was covering his scar, but with the blast it was probably sticking up everywhere and dirty as the rest of him. Her glance told him that she recognized his name, but she was professional enough to not make an issue about it.
"I had better go, Tatsuo. Can I come back later to check on Kimiko?" Harry picked up the evidence bag, and reduced it in size to tuck it into a pocket of his uniform.
The mediwitch nodded with a smile. "My shift ends at 9."
Harry left, apparating back to the warehouse. Had Tatsuo been flirting with him a little? He had a hard time reading people at times. She was attractive, but surely she had seen his name in the papers lately. Perhaps she thought he was bisexual?
...
The day was busy with processing the warehouse scene and questioning the captured suspect. Images of that little girl kept popping into his mind, and the lingering thought that she might not have been alive much longer if they hadn't found her. Where were her parents?
Even though he was exhausted, Harry knew he wouldn't be able to sleep until he saw her again. At the end of his shift he changed back into muggle clothes and splashed water in his face to tidy up a bit. His hair was still dusty and messy, and he didn't bother trying to fix it.
Taking the floo back to the hospital, he found the room Kimiko had been moved to. He stood in the doorway, not wanting to scare her. She was flipping through a picture book, her eyes enormous in her thin face. But at least she was awake and clean, tucked into the inclined hospital bed.
"She is doing much better," a soft voice at his left side said.
Harry turned and saw Tatsuo there, and gave her a small smile in acknowledgement. "That is a relief."
Tatsuo entered the room, beckoning Harry to follow. She pulled out her wand to check the girl's vital signs, and made notes on the medical chart. "Are you going to tell me your name? Or it still a secret?"
The little girl was looking up at Tatsuo's pretty face like an imprinted duck. She shook her head slowly.
Chuckling lightly, Tatsuo tapped her nose. "Then I will still call you Kimiko. You remember that I am Tatsuo, right?" She turned to show Harry beside her. "And this is Harry. He is the auror who brought you here."
The girl's intense gaze shifted to Harry, and he found it a little unsettling. Her large eyes were a stormy blue-green, framed with dark lashes. Her washed and combed hair was medium brown, but thin and with jagged ends. Faded bruises marred the pale skin on her face and arms.
Harry tried to give her a warm, unthreatening smile. "I think she looks more like a Brunhilda or a Willamina."
He was relieved to see the girl shake her head at the names, and swore there was a hint of a smile.
"Prunella or maybe Hester?" Tatsuo added, her warm eyes flicking towards Harry.
"Earnestina? Arnulfa?"
It was the last name that did it, making the girl give a soft giggle. "Seraphina." Her voice was hard to hear, and slightly scratchy.
Tatsuo beamed down at the girl. "Seraphina? What a pretty name."
Harry and Tatsuo tried to coax her last name out as well, but the girl just gave them a blank look. He was thinking she didn't know it.
"Well, Seraphinas are actually angels with six wings. Powerful, beautiful creatures." Tatsuo tucked the blanket back around the small girl.
She was already showing signs of tiredness from the interaction, and Tatsuo pulled Harry out of the room to let the girl rest.
Harry sighed when they were in the hallway. "At least I have a name now. I will search for relatives, somewhere safe she can go. How long do you think she will need to stay in the hospital?"
Tatsuo shrugged. "It is hard to say. Are you always this involved in your cases? Normally child protective services steps in."
Harry paused, the question hitting him. Why was he feeling so invested in Seraphina? Was it just from being the one who found her? Over the years, he had helped many kids in distress, and had always just left them to the hospital and the system to look after them.
"Not normally...," Harry finally said.
Tatsuo patted his arm. "It's easy in jobs like ours to harden ourselves, focussing on the task and almost needing to be a little detached to protect ourselves when we see such awful things. But once in a while, someone breaks through that."
Harry looked into her dark eyes and felt a real kindred spirit. She was smart and passionate about her job, but had a deep caring for people that made her ideal for working with children.
He nodded. "Will you let me know about any developments?"
After she agreed, he took the floo back to the office. He searched the records for Seraphina, but ended up going home exhausted a few hours later.
...
"I've checked birth records, missing persons reports, everything. No sign of that name anywhere," Harry ran a hand through his hair.
Ron passed him a cup of coffee, and leaned back against the kitchenette counter to sip his own. "She probably didn't go to school, so you can't even check there."
Adding some milk, Harry stirred his beverage. "I got a picture. Do you think we could ask about her during the interrogation?"
Shrugging, Ron led the way back to their desks to grab the file. "Might as well. It might even get him talking."
They headed down a floor, and went into the dingy interrogation room. The suspect was already there, an immobilizing spell keeping him in place. Ron and Harry sat down on the opposite side of the battered, wooden table.
Setting down the thick file, Ron nonchalantly flipped through it while sipping his coffee. His blue eyes flicked up to the man sitting across from him, scanning slowly over his unwashed dark hair, whisker stubble and stained, rumpled clothing. He was a man in his forties, but looked older from having a rough life.
Ron glanced back down at the page in front of him. "Can you tell us what you were doing in that warehouse, Theo?"
The man tried to open his mouth to speak, but the spell had locked his jaw as well as everything else. Ron's eyes went to Harry, and without pulling out his wand, he whispered the counter-spell.
Theo's eyes widened as he slumped into the chair, rolling his shoulders. His gaze moved over Harry's glasses and up to his forehead.
Harry stared at him calmly. He and Ron had used his reputation since they had become partners, always having Harry in the 'bad cop' role. Wandless magic wasn't that common, a subtle sign of his power. A reminder of who he was and what he had done.
"Well, are you going to answer the question?" Ron leaned forward, glaring at the suspect.
Theo jumped a little, his gaze skittering back to the ginger, and he swallowed nervously. "Um, just working on a stronger version of Pepper-up potion. I don't know why it exploded like that."
Arching an eyebrow, Ron flipped a few more pages and read over a sheet. "This is an inventory of the potion ingredients we found there. I see lots of bicorn horn powder, fluxweed, and boomslang skin. None of those go into Pepper-up."
Shifting in his seat, Theo seemed to be searching for an explanation. "That's part of my new formulation. Nothing illegal about healing potions."
Pushing a hand into the deep pocket of his robe, Ron pulled out a glass vial with a thick green sludge inside it. "We found a couple cases of your completed potion."
Harry almost laughed out loud at the way Theo opened his mouth to explain, but then quickly closed it. There was a slight tremor to his hands now, fidgeting and pushing his hair off his face. Harry could see nervous sweat beading on his forehead.
Ron looked down at his red auror robe, and carefully picked a short white hair off it. He opened the vial, put the hair in, and shook it. The potion changed to a sickly orange-grey color.
"You know, you aren't looking too great, Theo. I think you should drink this," he set the vial in front of the sweating man. "Although I should warn you that I added a cat hair to it. That can sometimes make potions react strangely, right, Harry?"
Harry smirked. "Oh yeah. A friend of ours accidentally put a cat hair in Polyjuice potion. It took weeks in the hospital for her to go back to normal."
Theo stared at the potion in front of him, and then shook his head. "I won't take it."
Chuckling, Ron got up and sat on the edge of the table to loom over the suspect. "No? Shall we immobilize you again and pour it down your throat? You really look unwell."
There was a bit of a staring contest then, Ron's last statement hanging in the air. Theo seemed to crumple after a few minutes, lowering his head down to his folded arms on the table. "No, no...I'll talk."
Ron's expression was one of pure satisfaction, and he moved back to his chair and finished off his coffee. "Fine. Tell us everything."
Theo started babbling, his eyes flicking between Ron and Harry, and resting on the vial as he searched for more information. The aurors gave him impassive expressions, jotting down an occasional note.
By the time he wound down, they had a good idea of the size of the Polyjuice ring. Theo's clients were all sorts of criminals who needed short term disguising as other people. The information would be valuable to capture many others. He also had connections to potion ingredient smugglers.
Harry had been listening closely, but what he really wanted to know hadn't been brought up. "And was the little girl we found in the warehouse your daughter?"
Theo gave him a confused expression. "Oh, her. I rarely even saw her," he shook his head. "She was some kid my partner got saddled with from an ex-girlfriend."
"Where is your partner?" Ron probed.
"Dead, a deal gone bad three years ago. I didn't even know his old girlfriend's name to give the kid back," Theo shrugged. "But by then, she basically took care of herself."
White hot rage surged through Harry at the potion maker's offhand manner, and before he knew it, he had the scrawny man pinned up against the wall, his wand against his neck. "You left a six year old to take care of herself? You let her sleep in a box of filthy blankets like a dog?"
Harry glared down at Theo's dark, fearful eyes, wanting to thump him against the wall repeatedly. Shove him into a small cage and push him into a cold corner of that fucking warehouse for a few months or years.
What had it been like for Seraphina? Passed like an unwanted package between her parents and ending up treated worse than a stray? She must have been on survival mode, sneaking out of her box when Theo left for the day, hoping for scraps of food and water. Did anyone talk to her, take care of her?
Strong hands gasped his shoulders, pulling him away from the suspect. He resisted at first, but then he could hear Ron's voice speaking in calming tones. "Harry, Harry...back off..."
Harry took a step back, lowering his wand, breathing fast and his heart pounding so hard it made it difficult to focus on anything else. He slumped down on to a chair, rubbing his hands over his face. He was vaguely aware of people talking and moving around.
By the time his breath had calmed and he lowered his hands to look around, it was only Ron in the room.
He passed Harry a glass. "Have some water."
Realizing how thirsty he felt, Harry wrapped his hands around the cup, and he closed his eyes as he took a comforting sip. His hands shook as he set the glass back down. "What just happened?"
Ron gave a nervous chuckle. "Um, well, I was hoping you could tell me that, mate. It was a routine interrogation, everything going well, and then suddenly you attacked. Had poor Theo against the wall and practically pissing himself."
Harry's head felt fuzzy, adrenaline and his turbulent feelings making it hard to think straight. "I don't even know. I just remember you pulling me off him. A good thing too...I really wanted to hurt that man."
It took a lot to shock Ron. He had known Harry since they were 11, and been an auror for years. But he looked worried and troubled, getting up to put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "I think we should go talk to Dankeworth. Better just tell her what happened than wait for that slimeball to start spreading lies about you and auror brutality."
...
Harry entered the elegantly decorated room, and sat down on a leather armchair. There was a matching chair a couple feet from his, and a small table between them. A small fire crackled before him, and he tried to relax. This felt like someone's living room instead of a sterile medical office.
A couple minutes later, a man in a navy muggle suit entered, carrying a file, and he settled on to the other chair. "Hello Harry, I'm Dr. Mendosa."
He was likely in his mid-forties, with salt and pepper hair and a few wrinkles near his warm, dark brown eyes. Harry was pretty good at reading people after so many years as an auror, and felt immediately comfortable with this man. They shook hands and settled into the chairs, the doctor flipping through the file.
"So, I see you are here at the request of your supervisor. Can you tell me what happened?" His tone was calm, neutral.
It had been a week since 'the incident', and Harry had been rattling around his house, on 'medical leave' from work until a therapist cleared him to return. It was mortifying.
Harry sighed. "I've gone over and over it in my mind, and I still don't really know. One minute it was just a routine interrogation, the next I had my wand at the suspect's throat. I'm just glad my partner was there to deescalate everything." He shuddered at the thought of carrying through with the dark urges that had gone through his mind then. It could have been much, much worse.
"Just tell me what you remember and we will see if we can figure it out."
Knowing he had to be compliant to have any hope of returning to his job again, Harry started giving the backstory of the warehouse bust and the talk with Theo. The older man let him talk without interruption, making some notes, acting much like Harry did in interrogations. Getting a measure of his subject, looking for gaps in the story.
"You mentioned you typically had your partner ask the questions during interrogations. What questions did you ask?"
Harry thought for a minute, searching his memory. The whole situation seemed somewhat hazy, blurred by emotions. He shrugged a little. "Um, I asked about who the girl was, and he flippantly said it was the daughter of his partner who had died years earlier."
The therapist was watching him closely. "That bothered you?"
Scoffing, Harry gave the older man a disbelieving look. "The healing witch estimated her age at around six, and Theo said his partner died three years ago. I'm sure the partner wasn't the perfect parent, but he probably took care of her somewhat."
"And Theo wasn't taking care of her?"
Vivid images of pulling back that dirty blanket and the feeling of pure horror when he realized it was a little child came rushing back. Harry felt like he had been punched in the gut, having a hard time catching his breath, his heart pounding. More images seemed to flood his thoughts, of Tatsuo gently washing her, those emaciated limbs, the bruises on her skin...
"Breathe, Harry, breathe...it's OK...," a calm voice instructed firmly, a warm hand steady on his shoulder, anchoring him.
Squeezing his eyes tightly shut, Harry tried to follow the instructions, breathing in through his nose, and blowing the air out of his mouth. Feeling his heart rate slow down, and the crippling tightness in his chest easing. His breathing went back to normal eventually, and Harry realized he was damp with sweat like he had run a few blocks. His body felt exhausted as well.
Dr. Mendoza sat down, passing a mug to Harry. "It's sweet tea. Sip it slowly."
Although it wasn't how he normally took his tea, Harry drank the hot beverage, thankful for it's soothing warmth. He hadn't realized he was thirsty, but the mug was empty surprisingly fast. "What just happened?"
The doctor gave him a considering look. "I think the situation with that girl is triggering things from your past. You are having a 'fight or flight' reaction to it, that is why you were breathing faster and breaking out in a sweat. It's from adrenaline. It's normal to feel shaky and tired afterwards."
Harry shook his head slowly. "Why now? Why this case? I've seen worse things during my auror years."
"That is something we will have to figure out together." The doctor gave him a confident smile. Somehow it helped that the doctor didn't seemed fazed by this.
...
They had sessions two times a week, working at getting Harry back to work soon. Time seemed to drag for Harry, who had pulled back from dating and other socializing for now. He had gotten tired of seeing Ron and Hermione asking him how he was doing with concerned expressions.
He spent a lot of time at the hospital with Seraphina. Tatsuo had introduced him to the other staff, even though it was probably unnecessary, and they had welcomed him.
When Seraphina was resting, he visited with other children, reading them stories and drawing pictures. They simply knew him as Harry, taking him at face value, without any knowledge of his past. It was refreshing.
"Sera! That is a wonderful picture!" Tatsuo beamed down at the little girl, looking down at the hippogriff she had drawn.
The girl grinned, her eyes seeming more blue than green today. Harry was pleased to see she was less gaunt now, and had some color in her cheeks. Every day she seemed to have more strength and energy, and seemed to soak up the stories Harry read to her.
She didn't speak much, but her expressive face made up for it. The social worker had said this was normal for someone who had been through so much.
Tatsuo put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Can I speak with you privately for a minute?"
Nodding, Harry got up and left Sera to her coloring, looking content.
"There is a meeting about Sera in a half hour, and I think you should come." Tatsuo said to Harry softly, when they were out of earshot.
"A meeting? What about?"
Tatsuo glanced back at Sera. "Her future. It's with all the health professionals who have been working with her. It will be time for her to leave the hospital soon."
Harry felt a tightening in his chest, and took a few deep breaths to calm himself. Of course, it made sense that she wouldn't be staying at the hospital forever. "Um, yes. I'd like to come."
Tatsuo seemed pleased, and told him the meeting location before rushing back to her duties.
Sitting down beside Sera again, Harry went back to coloring. She was good company, smiling at him and humming quietly to herself.
It was hard to concentrate, with all the possible situations Sera could end up in running through his mind. Stuck in a dirty, crowded orphanage, being ignored by the adults and bullied by the other kids. Stuck in a foster home with abusive adults. Situations so awful that she ran away to hide herself again in a box. A homeless waif again. She was so small and defenseless.
By the time Tatsuo appeared again, beckoning Harry to join her, Harry felt a bit anxious.
The conference room had a large table with a dozen chairs around it. About half were full. "Social worker, nutritionist, home care, child welfare, curse breaker, education ministry rep...," Tatsuo whispered to Harry quietly once they had sat down, listing off the various positions of the staff.
The meeting started, and Tatsuo simply introduced Harry as the auror who had found Seraphina. Three people seemed to recognize him, their eyes flicking up to his forehead in a way he was far too familiar with.
"She cannot attend school until her speaking skills catch up," the education rep was saying, glancing around the group for agreement on her point.
The social worker nodded. "Her social skills need time to develop as well. If we rush it, she will just withdraw again."
Child welfare flipped through a file folder. "I don't have openings at any foster homes that can give her that type of support."
"Isn't there a rehab hospital that could take her?" Tatsuo shot out, seeming a bit frustrated.
Child welfare sighed. "There are only day programs with capacity. She would still need a home placement."
Harry listened to the rapid fire discussion, as the professionals tried to find the best possible fit for the girl. He could feel his internal tension mounting, his chest feeling tighter, as it seemed to go on and on, with no solution coming up.
"Can she stay with me? I have a big house." Harry blurted suddenly, surprising even himself.
Six sets of eyes swiveled back to him, and he could tell that in the intense discussion, they had forgotten he was even there. After looking at him for a moment, a few shared looks with each other, and no one seemed excited by his suggestion.
Finally, the social worker gave him a level look with her dark blue eyes. "Harry Potter, that is a generous offer, but it takes more than some extra bedrooms to take care of a high risk child."
"I'm not claiming it is the perfect solution, but surely for now it might fit the bill. I'm off work currently for a bit, so I could take her to that rehab program every day." Harry pushed on, just feeling the need to help Sera somehow.
Child welfare shook his head. "What happens when you go back to work? She would have grown attached to you by then and it would hard on both of you to move her."
"Then I'll adopt her, and arrange for competent child care like any working parent," Harry argued back, speaking so fast he hardly knew what he was saying.
This got a look of disbelief from the child welfare worker. "Perhaps being Harry Potter, you are used to getting whatever you want with a snap of your fingers, but we don't take adoption so lightly. You would have to apply and be approved. And I have never heard of a single, homosexual auror being approved."
The man's prejudice was clearly showing, and it felt like about half the table was nodding in agreement, while the other half seemed outraged. Since being outed a few months ago, Harry had rarely faced such direct homophobia.
Shoving back his chair, Harry stood up. He nodded to Tatsuo and left the room. Clearly his presence was not needed.
...
Ron smiled when the server came by with a second round, taking his beer and pushing the firewhiskey across the table to Harry. "I still can't believe you offered to adopt the girl."
Taking a sip, Harry savored the burn of the alcohol as he swallowed, and the smoky spice flavors that lingered. "I can't believe it either. I just got caught up in wanting to help her."
"It's not that I don't think you would be an amazing father, but..." Ron started, but seemed to be fumbling for words.
Harry was a bit hurt. "You don't think gay men should adopt?" It wasn't that uncommon a belief, even among straight people who generally accepted homosexuality.
"No! No...that isn't a part of it at all." Ron ran a hand through his hair. "It's more about you being single and an auror. Raising a kid is hard work, even for two people, and add in your crazy schedule...plus the danger..."
Harry sighed. Ron had a point. "Yeah, yeah."
"Maybe in five years or so, you'll be all settled down with a husband and a safe desk job, and you can consider adoption again," Ron grinned, and then tilted his head a little to give Harry a considering look. "Do you think you'd take your husband's name, or would you take his? Or do a hyphenated double name?"
His friend's teasing is just what he needed. It was good, knowing he could share anything with Ron, talk it out, and get an honest opinion in response.
As Ron continued to bug Harry about his future husband, the image of Draco holding Sera hit Harry. She was in yellow pajamas, and he was hugging her tight, before laying her down on a small child-sized bed. Kissing her cheek and tucking her in.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck...
"Sheesh, Harry! Come back from whatever fantasyland you just went to..." Ron cajoled, dipping a finger in his beer and flicking the liquid at Harry.
That pulled Harry back. He took a long sip of firewhiskey, pushing those disturbing thoughts away. "I would definitely take his name. As much as I love and respect my parents, it would be nice to start fresh with a new name."
"Even if it something like Hopkins? Harry Hopkins..." Ron tried out the name, "or Harry Bones?"
"Harry Longbottom?" Harry smirked, wracking his mind for funny names. "Harry Fudge."
"That sounds disgusting! Harry Hooch." Ron stuck his tongue out, still chuckling.
"Oh, that just sounds rude! Um, Harry Crabbe." Harry gasped for air, laughing so hard his ribs ached.
Ron burst out laughing, and then wheezed, "Harry Malfoy."
They had been slinging names back and forth fast, trying to one up each other to find the most ridiculous sounding combinations. But that name combination stopped Harry's laughter instantly.
"Um, yeah..." Harry tried to act normal, forcing out a chuckle. "That would probably be the most ridiculous one. I'd be trading my name for another with just as much baggage from the past."
Ron didn't seem to notice, waving down the server for another round.
They got back to discussing the case, Ron updating Harry on the leads that had resulted in bringing four other shady associates of Theo's potions ring. Harry tried to concentrate, but that name kept ringing in his head."
Harry Malfoy. Harry Malfoy. Harry Malfoy.
Sighing to himself, Harry pushed the thoughts aside to listen better to Ron.
...
-A/N: More twists & turns. This fic will likely be 20 chapters long. Thanks for reading!