It was night when Harry finally reached the theatre. Holding Mr. Evans' watch tightly, he looked at the object he suspected had started the countdown to Mr. Evans' death.
If he understood how that thing worked, he still had forty minutes before the countdown ended. Forty minutes before Mr. Evans' death.
Distantly, he wondered how a fob watch could actually predict such thing. If there was one thing he's learnt in his time studying divination, it was that predicting anything to the second should be outright impossible. How long one had before death even less. It was against everything he's ever learnt. And yet here it was. In his hands, Harry was holding an artifact whose power he could scarcely comprehend and telling him how long there was until the reaper came.
Well, he furiously thought as he gripped the watch even tighter, not on his watch.
The second hand stopped a moment. Suddenly it went backward, faster than before until there were nothing but thirty minutes.
Harry swore and put the enchanted in his pocket. Seeing nobody around, he took his wand in hand and headed to the entrance.
It was when he pulled the door handle that he realized that the door was unlocked. Considering there was only one key and the man having it wouldn't make such basic mistake, it was clear what had happened.
His grip on his wand tightened. Trying to make as little noise as possible, Harry opened the door and entered the dark theater. Looking left and right, he listened, trying to hear if somebody was coming in his direction and attempting to make sense of the shadows and see if one of them could be Brutus Greengrass' or Inspector's Granger's.
But no. The entire theatre was empty.
Harry shakily breathed.
There weren't many options where the man could be. Either he was on stage and bringing the vanishing cabinet in the storeroom or he was in his room. Harry hesitated a moment. Finally, he headed to the man's room.
His heart leapt when he saw light coming underneath the door leading to Mr. Evans' room/
Getting closer to said door, he heard a voice saying. "And why should I stop?"
"Oh, I don't know," a dry voice answered. "Perhaps because this little game of yours has lasted long enough?"
It was Mr. Evans.
"It wasn't funny then, and it's still not funny now, Brutus. Your little games, these curses you've put me under, the things you've told me… It's never been funny and I've got enough of it."
Harry cursed under his breath and tried to see what was happening in the other room. Looking through the keyhole, he saw standing the vanishing cabinet.
Somewhere in the other room, he heard Mr. Evans saying. "The others stopped a long time ago, so why can't you, Brutus? Why? What is so wrong with your life that you cannot help following me and need to ruin mine?"
A scoff. "Don't make yourself more important than you are."
Harry tried to see what he could do without ending up like the last time or making things worse. Yes, the two men didn't seem like they were about to fight but for how long?
Searching his pocket as the two men were discussing, he took the fob watch and opened it. Flicking the crystal with a shaky finger he looked at the countdown timer.
Apparently, things were going to go sour in less than ten minutes.
Holding his holly wand tight, he tried to see which spell he should use to effectively stop the Auror without endangering Mr. Evans at the same time. But no matter how hard he tried to find an effective plan he just couldn't. Going head on hadn't worked the last time and it was clear a frontal attack was out of question. And yet, Harry just couldn't see what else he could do. Harry's got nothing and he was alone to solve this mess.
And where was Inspector Granger? The man had said he needed to make a detour before going to theatre but surely the man should be there by now, no? How could the man not be here when he was so badly needed? Of all time they had wanted him to be away, why did it have to be now?
His view of the vanishing cabinet was suddenly blocked by the figure of a dark-haired man.
"That always was your problem, Patrick" the figure said. "Even when we were children, you've never been able to remember your place. I was doing you a service, really."
Mr. Evans' reply was subarctic. "A service, really."
"Well, you didn't honestly believe you were like us, did you? The little squib, trying to fool proper wizards into believing he could do magic too. And look at you now: still playing wizards and pretending you can do magic when you're doing nothing but a farce of it."
"A farce?" For the first time since Harry's known Mr. Evans, the man raised his voice.
"Magic is not some trick you do to amuse muggles!" Brutus Greengrass spat the last word as it was something disgusting. "It is not- Magic's not to be used for something as stupid as impressing a gullible crowd! Can't you see the shame you're bringing to it, Patrick?"
"Oh yes, it is!" he exclaimed. "Magic should be used for something like that! And let me tell you this: from where I'm standing you're the one using parlor tricks!"
A hiss. "Don't you dare!"
"Oh, I dare! Waving a glowing stick to have your way, big deal! Cursing a child who cannot fight back, following him and attempting to ruin every good thing in his life… Who is the one really bringing shame to magic, Brutus? Setting a sorry cabinet on fire just because he can, who is the pathetic one between the two of us?"
Harry was about to enter the room when he heard Brutus Greengrass taking a deep breath. "I'm sure you didn't send me a dove for us to talk about our childhood. So why am I here tonight, Patrick?"
"Oh you would have come anyway."
"And even an optimistic like you should have known what my answer was going to be. So what did you really want to talk about?"
For a moment, Harry didn't hear anything. Finally a hiss. "Where did you get this?"
"Does it matter?" Mr. Evans flippantly replied. "I've got it. And if you do not want it to fall into the wrong hands -sorry, the right ones- you should start listening to me and do as you're told. "
"And does anybody knows that you know about..."
"Who do you take me for? Of course it's not just me who knows about it. So if you get any idea, know that I've asked that person to release that public should anything happen to me."
A pause. Then a laugh. "You know, for a con man you're a pretty terrible liar, Patrick. Misdirection and half-truths, you're actually very good at them but outright lies? That's where you always fall short. You haven't told anybody about it, have you?"
"O-Of course I have."
But Harry could feel a little hesitation in the man's voice.
"No, you haven't," the wizard sing-sang. "And even if you knew somebody you could trust with that, I don't think you would have endangered them by giving them such knowledge. You've got nobody to watch your back, Patrick. Never have, never will."
"Check again."
The two men abruptly turned their head when Harry opened the door and entered the room, wand pointing at the dark-haired man.
Emerald eyes widened in alarm. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh?" The other wizard in the room darkly smiled. "And who might you be?"
"Doesn't matter," Mr. Evans sharply said.
"I think it does. Come on, Patrick, kid's here is trying to save the day. I think we should humour him a moment. What's your name, boy?"
Harry's jaw clenched. "I'm not a kid."
"Of course you're not. You're, what? Fourteen? Thirteen?"
"I'm sixteen."
Harry gritted his teeth when the man began laughing. "So you're not even of age. Hiding behind kids now, Patrick? What next, muggles? You remember you're not allowed to do magic outside school, don't you? Or have you forgotten this little fact?"
"I haven't."
Except he had. The second any of them casted a spell, Harry would be effectively kicked out of Hogwarts.
"I'm giving you a chance, boy. You leave this room quietly and nothing is going to happen to you. I'll even close my eyes on this clear breach of the statute of secrecy."
"No."
The word had left his mouth before Harry could even think about it. But remembering the watch in his pocket, he knew there could be no other answer. If Harry stayed, he would never be able to go back to Hogwarts and probably his time.
But if he were to leave and not do anything, Harry would let a man die.
The man seemed surprised a moment. "Do you even know who you're dealing with, boy?" Looking closely at him, he frowned. "Oh, I see. I suppose stupidity does run in the family. Very well then." He raised his wand. "Have it your way."
Harry was about to cast the disarming charm when somebody stood between him and the Auror.
It was Mr. Evans. "You're not harming him," he warned.
The wizard rolled his eyes. "Touching, really. But what can you do really? Oh well, I suppose it'd be killing two birds with one stone." He raised his wand. "Very well then, if that's how you want it to end, Sectu-"
A hand grabbed the arm holding the wand.
Greengrass stilled and slowly turned his head behind him.
And under Mr. Evans' screams, Inspector Granger pinned Brutus Greengrass to the wall.
For a second, Harry could do nothing but numbly look at the man who had seemingly appeared from nowhere. After shaking his head, he pointed his wand in the direction of the two men who had started fighting. When it became clear he could curse the wrong person by accident, he pocketed his wand and entered the fight by throwing a left hook in the wizard's face.
There was a small explosion and the three men fell as a wand spun into the air before reaching the floor and rolling away. It only ended his course when it hit a pair of feet.
Mr. Evans numbly looked at the item at his feet for a moment. He then looked at the three other men, as if he couldn't quite believe what was happening in front of him.
When he finally looked at the wand's owner, he darkly smiled and crushed the wand under his foot.
Taking care of Brutus Greengrass was easy after that.
"Hello, do you remember me?" Inspector Granger asked as he finally handcuffed the seething wizard. "It's alright if you don't: I don't remember you either."
"How did you get in?" Mr. Evans shakily asked the policeman.
Eyes never leaving the wizard, the man pointed in the direction of the vanishing cabinet whose door was open.
"But I've never left my eyes from the cabinet. I've been looking at it ever since the end of the show and there was no time when you could have got in. So how?"
The muggle opened his mouth as if to answer the magician's question. Suddenly he stopped, as if considering something.
Finally he answered: "Magic."
"How dare you."
While the two men were chatting, Harry's hand took Mr. Evans' fob watch. Opening it and flicking the crystal, he looked at the second hand moving backward. And if his heart leapt a moment he relaxed when he noticed the skull had been replaced by another drawing.
So it wasn't just death that watch was predicting.
"And why was Harry with you anyway?"
"Yes, that's what I want to know too."
Harry stilled and slowly turned his head. Seeing the two men have crossed their arms, he winced.
"I thought I told you to leave this matter to me," Inspector Granger gravelly said.
"Y-You did. It-It's just- Mrs. Evans was worried," he rushed.
Mr. Evans tilted his head. "Maggie was worried?"
Harry quickly nodded and handed the man his watch. Seeing the man's surprised face he explained, "She said you'd never leave it behind and that something had to be wrong. And when I opened it..."
The man didn't say anything. He just took the watch and numbly looked at it.
"And what were you trying to do there?" Inspector Granger gravelly asked. "Blackmailing a person such as this one? What were you thinking? You should have known it would bring you nothing but trouble and he would probably try to silence you. Did you have a death wish?"
Mr. Evans winced. "I didn't… I knew it was going to be dangerous but I thought that if I played it right..." He sighed. "That was stupid, I know. I've never been good at this sort of things but I just… I thought something had to be done if I..." He sighed again.
"Did you know what I saw when I opened your watch?" Harry gravelly said.
"I can guess. And no, I didn't know." He turned to Harry and gave him a humorless smile. "I made a point in not looking at it. I didn't bring it tonight because I thought that if I did I'd get cold feet. I've never considered Maggie would find it and worry."
Inspector Granger suspiciously looked at them. "It's a magic watch, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"Figure. Speaking of magic tools..." He began searching his pockets. "I suppose you can have this back."
It was Harry's pen knife.
Harry was putting the object in his pocket when Mr. Evans asked the policeman what was so special about that pen knife.
"Opens any lock. I must say it was very useful to get in the theater and reach the backstage." A pause. "Come to think of it, that's also the perfect tool for a burglary. What-What a terrifying tool. And did I just-?"
"What about Greengrass?" Harry asked before the muggle could change his mind and ask for his pen knife back. "What's going to happen to him?"
The man paused. "Well, I'd like to say he's going to follow me to Scotland Yard but it's my day off so it may be a little complicated."
"And it's highly possible that some wizards will get him out before any of us can say Quidditch," Mr. Evans finished.
"So what?" Harry incredulously asked, "We let him go free?"
There was a loud noise behind them, not unlike a muggle car backfiring. When Harry turned around, wand ablaze, he was confronted by a man in long purple robe.
The wizard at the other side of the wand didn't look impressed. "You should drop your wand, young man."
He didn't. "Who are you?"
"He's an obliviator," Mr. Evans answered. "I wasn't sure, but it looks like the wand backfiring was enough to trigger the trace. As such incident can cause quite a lot of damages, he is evaluating whether or not he need to repair any damages caused and if he has to call a mediwizard. It's alright," he told the man. "The backfire wasn't strong enough."
The wizard in purple robe ignored him. "I suppose the boy here is the underage wizard," he concluded in a bored voice.
"Boy?"
He ignored him. "Your name is Harry Potter, is that correct?"
"Y-Yeah."
"Yes, sir." Ignoring Harry rolling his eyes, he retrieved a piece of parchment and glanced at it. "And on the 20th of July of this year you received at 11 pm an owl from the Improper Use of Magic Office informing you they had records of you using magic in a muggle area, is that correct?"
"It wasn't me."
"Did you attempt to appeal the decision within the time you could do so?"
"Well no but-"
"Then that's not my problem. Very well then." Taking what seemed to be a notebook and a quill, he began writing and in a bored voice said, "As this is your second offense, I have to inform you that you are officially asked to come to the Improper Use of Magic Office to pay five galleons for breaking the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery and that you are effectively expelled from any magical school you may have been attending before and cannot apply in another one."
"But-"
The man raised his voice. "When you come to the Improper Use of Magic Office, it will be decided whether or not you may keep your wand. In the meantime-"
"I didn't use magic!" he exclaimed.
"Can you prove that it was not you?" he challenged.
Harry snorted and pointed at the man sulking on the ground. "Well, yes."
The obliviator apathetically glanced in the direction Harry was pointing at.
That all changed when he saw the wizard on the floor.
Dropping his notebook he exclaimed, "But that's Auror Greengrass! What on earth happened there?"
He sharply moved his wand and the handcuffs vanished.
Inspector Granger jumped on the now free wizard as Mr. Evans hurriedly started searching a drawer on the table against the wall before throwing him a pair of handcuffs.
"Stop!" the obliviator shouted. "Wh-What are you doing? St-Stop!"
He raised his wand as if to curse them.
And stilled when he saw Harry pointing his wand at him. "Don't think about it."
The obliviator looked at Harry with something akin to horror. "What are you going to do to me?" he murmured.
"Oh nothing," Mr. Evans smoothly replied. "We're not going to do anything. Lower your wand, Harry." In a voice he normally used when he was on stage he told the man, "But you must have realized by now that this is a slightly more complicated matter than what you're usually dealing with. I'm not even sure you're competent when I think about it."
The man stilled. "I'm not?" he asked with a strange tone in his voice.
"An Auror got beaten down by a muggle, a squib and a kid-"
"Eh!" Harry protested.
"I do believe such dangerous people cannot be handled by the regular Ministry employees."
With something akin to wonder, he breathed, "You're right."
"We have a few things to say but I doubt you're the person we should talk to." A pause. "I know this is highly irregular, but if you could please ask for Auror Longbottom-"
"Of course! I-I go back to the Ministry and-and I'll send him here-"
A smile. "That's very nice of you. If you would be kind enough to also tell him to bring Veritaserum I'll be very much-"
With a loud crack the obliviator disappeared.
Mr. Evans softly shook his head. "Lowly paid employees are so predictable."
"He's going to bring back an Auror," Harry remarked.
"We were going to have an Auror after us the second you two attacked Brutus. At least I get to pick the least worst. Now, I don't want you to say anything. You get it? I don't even want to hear you breathing."
Seeing the man was dead serious, Harry nodded. "What's going to happen now?"
After making sure Auror Greengrass wasn't listening to them he said, "I try to get us out of this mess. I'm not going to lie: it's going to be very difficult and if I fail the two of us ends up in Azkaban so you better do as you're told this time."
"Azkaban?"
"It's a prison," he told Inspector Granger. "The two of you did attack an Auror and such act always has consequences. As you're a muggle, the worst thing that can happen to you is to get your memories erased but Harry and I may be sent to the Dementors if they want to punish us so don't be too surprised if I put most of the blame on you."
"These Dementors being?"
"Soul sucking monsters," Harry explained.
"Literally."
The young man who apparated in the theatre had the face of someone who knew he was about to face some unbelievable mess and was utterly done before it even started.
"Alright then," Auror Longbottom slowly said after taking a look at the people in the room, "what do you want?"
"This is no hostage situation," Mr. Evans told the Auror. "I know the three of us may look a little suspicious-"
The wizard snorted.
"But I assure you there is a perfectly logical explanation. We just… We just want to have a chance to explain ourselves before anybody jumps to conclusions and we are sent to the Ministry or Azkaban before awaiting judgement. Have you got Veritaserum on you? I know I asked the obliviator to tell you to bring some but-"
"I've brought Veritaserum. However, there's a few things I want to check beforehand."
"Of course."
He knelt in front of Greengrass and seemed to evaluate the state of him. A wave of his wand, and the nose Harry had broken with a well-thrown punch started healing.
"Which one between you and the muggle did this?"
"Oh well, it was-"
"It's that kid who did this," Greengrass spat. "I came here to deal with a the threat that squib poses to the statute of secrecy and that criminal started threatening me."
"You were going to kill Mr. Evans!" Harry screamed.
Auror Longbottom shushed him.
"And that… that filthy muggle here attacked me from behind!"
"One: I am anything but dirty. I clean in fact anything thrice before considering using it. Two: it was in alter ego defense and I am a member of the police force and as such am allowed to employ force to incapacitate a person I deem is a threat to another."
Auror Longbottom painfully closed his eyes. "We're going to be here for a long time, aren't we?"
Inspector Granger winced in sympathy.
The sun was beginning to rise when the five men finally left the theatre.
Auror Longbottom had been the first to leave with Greengrass. He had then come back and left with Inspector Granger who was heading home before being obliviated.
Harry supposed that part had been unavoidable. Of course the Auror wasn't going to let the inspector remember the existence of magic. At least the man had agreed to it this time and had even said something about understanding why the wizard was doing it. And if he understood something, he apparently had no choice but to accept it.
He yawned on the way home. "I can't believe it took the whole night."
"Me neither. Auror Longbottom must have wanted to settle this matter as soon as possible. Then again, usage of Veritaserum makes even the most complicated cases very straightforward."
Remembering the Auror had used the truth serum on Mr. Evans he couldn't help asking: "Why did it have to be you? Couldn't he use it on Greengrass?"
"No, he couldn't. In a wizarding court of law, truth serums can only be given to those who have made the demand. It's a very dangerous potion after all, and we've got in the wizarding world something called right against self-incrimination. As very few are mad enough to do it, the potion is almost never used. And when it is..." He slyly smiled. "Well… That person must be innocent and must have done no wrong in his entire life."
Harry snorted.
What the man had told the Auror had been the truth, and at the same time it hadn't been. Yes, it had been a normal day like any other as far as Mr. Evans was concerned. He had gone to the theatre for a magic show and there hadn't been any hitch during the representation. After the show had ended, he had waited for Auror Greengrass who was supposed to come because he had sent him an owl to come about private matters. These matter being related over the wizard bullying him and Mr. Evans wanting him to stop. And when the conversation had turned sour, Harry who had come to bring his watch back had tried to defend him. As for the muggle, he had no idea why he had been in the cabinet but the man had been strangely fascinated by what was nothing but a muggle cabinet with a trap.
But Mr. Evans attempting to blackmail Auror Greengrass, Inspector Granger knowing about the existence of magic because Harry had broken the statute of secrecy… All this had been quietly swept away.
Professor Mesmer had explained to him how dangerous a person able to wield the truth like one would a wand could be, but it was the first time he had effectively seen this lesson puts into practice.
And as it seemed only another testimony made under veritaserum could challenge the previous one and as Greengrass couldn't not confess he had tried to kill them if he were to ask to have the truth serum used on him, Harry had no reason to worry about the Ministry of magic finding out what he's done any time soon.
"So he's going to Azkaban, right?"
"Perhaps." Seeing Harry incredulously looking at him, Mr. Evans shrugged. "The thing with purebloods is that they watch each other's backs. As Brutus has connections in certain circles such as the Order of Asteria, he's valuable enough someone might think about pulling a few strings for him. Don't worry though: I've got connections too." He smiled. "Also I've found quite a few things that'd make it clear they're better off without him. I wanted to use it to force his hand last night but maybe it'll be better if I use it this way." Opening his watch and looking at the time he shook his head in amusement. "To think the one time I don't bring it with me I get in that sort of trouble."
Seeing the magical artifact, Harry couldn't help remembering the countdown timer he had seen just a few hours ago. "I thought it was impossible to predict the future that accurately."
"And it is, to my knowledge. My watch can foresee a few things to a point, but it mostly deals with possibilities and usually picks the most probable one. Most of the time it is terrifyingly accurate but I've been wondering lately if that wasn't because I was following its predictions too religiously and was turning them into some sort of self-fulfilling prophecies." He self-deprecatingly chuckled. "That's a reason why I left my watch home. To think Maggie saw right through me and that you actually opened it."
Remembering Auror Longbottom had failed to open the fob watch when it had been presented to him he frowned. "Why couldn't Auror Longbottom open it?"
"Because my father charmed it so that only he or a blood relative could."
Harry abruptly stopped walking.
It took him a moment to remember how to speak. "What?"
The squib gave Harry a wistful smile. "He did it to reassure me, a long time ago. But it's not unusual for a artifacts such as this watch to have that sort of charms: you don't want them to leave the family or thieves to get any idea. Frankly, he should have known on the go he wouldn't manage."
"No, no..." He dazedly shook his head. "I-I mean..."
If Mr. Evans was saying only a relative could open it, and if Harry had somehow managed to open the fob watch, then wouldn't that mean that the two of them…
Mr. Evans stilled. "Hold on a moment. Does that mean..."
"So what? That mean that we're-"
"You don't actually know we're related?"
Harry felt like the Hogwarts Express had just hit him.
"Wh-Wh-What?"
"Seriously? Even my wife figured that one out and you can't say she's the sharpest tool in the shed."
Harry spluttered. "What do you mean she knows?" he croaked.
"Well, she doesn't know you're not from this time naturally-"
Harry strangled himself with his own saliva.
"-but she's realized quite early you and I were related. She doesn't think you're my son, thankfully. That would have been very awkward for me if she had."
Harry felt like his soul was slowly leaving his body.
It took a moment to remember how to use words. "And you said nothing? Why-Why didn't you say anything?"
"I assumed it was some big secret and I wasn't supposed to know."
Harry screamed.
"Was I wrong?"
"Yes. I mean, no, but-" He ran a hand through his hair.
"Even Inspector Granger and Brutus realized there was some family resemblance between us. And I wouldn't be surprised to learn Mesmer knows too. Like… Everybody knows, Harry. You're literally the last person to have figured it out."
It took all his hard earned lesson in occlumency for Harry not to bite his fist and scream again. "You said I was not from this time," he finally croaked.
"Well, you can open my father's watch, you've got my mother's eyes and they both died roughly twenty years ago, you supposedly didn't travel through space… I've got a lot of imagination but even I must admit defeat and concede that maybe you're from the future."
Harry numbly looked at the man. "How long have you known?"
"That you're some offspring of mine? A few hours. That we were family? The very beginning." Seeing Harry bewildered face, the expression on his face softened. "Why do you think I was at Kings' Cross that day?"
Harry tried to remember that day. It hadn't even been two months and yet it seemed to have happened a long time ago. "You said you needed to grab something."
But the man hadn't been carrying anything and King's Cross was in the opposite direction of the road the magician usually took to go to work.
And Harry finally realized he hadn't come to grab something but someone.
"How did you know?" he breathed. "How did you know I needed you then?"
"Honestly? I haven't got the faintest idea. I just knew. And I don't particularly want to know how I knew. It'd ruin the magic, don't you think?"
And Harry wetly smiled. "Y-Yeah."
The man smiled back. "We should hurry up. If what you said is true, Maggie must be worried sick and she's' probably going to be very cross with us so we shouldn't make it harder for us."
And as the two men headed home, Harry finally realized why he hadn't been able to help observing that strange man in the middle of a crowd of even stranger men who were dazzling all the students present at Professor Mesmer's Halloween party.
His hair had been white, and there had been more lines on his face, but the man who had introduced himself had been the same man who had among dozen other people waved at him at the other side of the mirror of Erised.
