[quick a/n: i don't update my fics on ffn as much as i update my fics on ao3 – my tumblr is lanaturnergetup, and that's my ao3 user, too! please come catch up with me on there ]
The last thing Harry was expecting when reading over a report of a breaking and entering in Hogsmeade was to see his own nephew's name. But there it was, clear as day: Fred Weasley.
Even now, after all these years, reading that name gave him a pang of misery that he didn't think would ever go away.
"Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes? Are you sure?" he asked the Auror who was presenting the case to him.
Auror Priya Iyer looked vaguely peeved, as was her wont. "Yes, sir. I'm sure. The evidence seems to suggest that someone broke in, and then… fell unconscious."
"Was it an attack?" Harry asked, immediately worried about Freddie, running the Hogsmeade shop alone.
"Doesn't seem that way," Auror Iyer confirmed. "So far, it seems like a failed attempt at a burglary."
Harry looked at the picture in the file: an old man, lying on the ground, looking for all the world as if he was asleep and not unconscious. "Was anything stolen from the shop?"
"No," Auror Iyer said. "And both the owners of the shop and Fred Weasley confirmed that nothing was taken."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Did the owners really confirm that?"
Finally, Auror Iyer smiled. "When we asked them, both of them informed us that Fred would have a better idea than they would, and to trust him. And Fred confirmed it."
"Freddie," Harry said. "He goes by Freddie."
Priya nodded, but was otherwise quiet.
"So. A burglary… with nothing missing," Harry said.
"That's why it's a failed attempt."
Fair enough, Harry supposed. "Alright. What are the next steps in the investigation?"
"We've taken Fred – Freddie – Weasley and Danielle Jordan's statements, and we've got an Auror waiting at Mungo's for Mr. Thomas to wake up."
Harry nodded, slowly. "Alright. I'll go interview him. Mr. Thomas. Who's the Auror posted there?" He wondered absentmindedly if it was any relation to Dean – but, no, Dean was Muggle-born, wasn't he? Another reason to interview Mr. Thomas, at any rate.
Priya hesitated for a moment.
Harry handed the file back to her, raising his eyebrows. "What is it?"
"Well… this case involves your nephew. We're discouraged from working on cases involving family members, aren't we?" Priya said tentatively.
"We are, yes," Harry agreed. "But I'm not running the case, Priya. You are. I'm not even an active Auror anymore, technically."
"Yes, because you run the entire Department of Magical Law Enforcement," Priya pointed out, and then, "Alright. Zara Khan is waiting to take his statement. She's at Mungo's now."
"Alright," Harry said. "Cheers."
St. Mungo's was the same as it always was: clinical, sterile, bustling. Harry found Zara Khan, perched on a chair outside the entrance of the room. She stood up as soon as she saw him, pushing her dark hair out of her face. "I didn't know you were coming, sir," she said.
"I wanted to interview him," Harry said, and wondered what the point of being the head of the department was if he had to justify every action he took.
He opened the door and walked in without another word, just in time to see Benjamin Thomas stir in bed.
"What are you doing here?" was the first thing Freddie said, but he couldn't control the slow grin that crept across his face.
James shrugged. "Well, the vacation came to a natural end –"
"It hasn't even been two months. You were meant to be gone the entire year."
"No," James said, "we were always going to come back for Christmas. So. Here we are. Back home for Christmas."
Freddie blinked. "It's October," he said.
"Never too early for Christmas," James said.
Freddie sighed. "You came here because of me, didn't you?"
"Don't know what you're on about," James said, and hopped to his feet. "Leah and I were homesick, is all."
"Where is Leah?" Freddie asked.
"She's at Dani's. Wanted to check on her."
"The same reason you're here, you mean?"
"Well," James said, "it's not every day your best mate finds a dead body in his shop, is it?"
Freddie thought about the body of Benjamin Thomas, lying on the floor of his shop, with a Selwyn ring in his hand. He thought about how he had that ring, and then lost it. How Anna had it, how he didn't know how to possibly get it back.
He sighed. "He's not dead," he mumbled.
"That's good to know. Definitely the best-case scenario there. So," James said, hopping to his feet and leaning over to open his trunk. "I brought back some tea. Proper Ceylon tea, from Sri Lanka. I'll make us some, and you can tell me the entire story. How's that?"
"There's not much to tell," Freddie said.
James raised his eyebrows in a way that suddenly reminded Freddie of his Uncle Harry. Speaking of which…
"Did your dad tell you anything?" he asked.
James looked at his watch. "Why don't you ask him yourself? He's coming here in five minutes."
"What – you called him over?" Freddie said.
James shrugged like it was obvious, and Freddie supposed that it was. "Course I did," he said. "You didn't tell me anything. Uncle George didn't tell me anything. I thought I'd have a better chance with Dad."
"I doubt that," Freddie said. "The Aurors haven't told me much, either."
"Is that why you were off comforting yourself with Anna?" James asked innocently.
Freddie frowned.
"Come on, mate, I'm not an idiot," James said,
Freddie thought about his hands on Anna's waist, how she had seemed to be as passionate, as urgent as he was. He had been a fool, of course. She'd wanted to seduce the ring away from him, and he had thought that she felt all the same things he did, that she sometimes missed him, that they could both be honest with each other…
No. James was not an idiot. But he, Freddie, was.
His heart sank as he thought about it. It must have shown on his face, because James said, not unkindly, "No judgement here. Do you want to tell me what happened?"
So Freddie sat down on the sofa, watched James make them both tea, and told him everything. Not that there was much to say, really. "This man came into the shop," he said, propping his feet up on James's trunk. "Like. Old man."
"Anyone we know?"
"No," Freddie said. "He asked me if I'd seen anything suspicious. Told me to look out, and mentioned the Selwyns. And then left."
"He just left?" James asked, sounding incredulous.
"Gave me a piece of parchment with his name and an address I could write him at. Benjamin Thomas. That's his name. And that was that."
James brought two cups over to the sofa, and sat down besides Freddie. "Then?"
"Then, last night, Dani stayed over. I heard something at midnight or so. We went, and then saw him on the floor of the shop." This bit was well-rehearsed, after how many times Freddie had had to repeat it to the Aurors. "And then Dani called the Aurors. They took the man to Mungo's. They interviewed me, and Dani. About a thousand times. They finally left in the afternoon. And then… and then you showed up at my flat," he ended, feeling yet another pang of guilt as he thought about the ring.
"Yeah, yeah, and you were overjoyed to see me," James said. "What aren't you telling me?"
Before Freddie could answer, his fireplace lit up, and Uncle Harry stepped out of the fireplace, brushing soot off his scarlet robes.
"Right," he said, "what's been going on?"
"So," Harry said, once he was sitting down and had been handed a cup of tea by James, "I was just at Mungo's."
"That's not new for you, is it?" Jamie said, grinning. "Uncle Ron's told us about all the injuries you got in your early Auror days. And at Hogwarts."
"Battling a Dark Lord is dangerous work," Freddie agreed, and then, "What happened at Mungo's?"
"Thomas was just waking up," Harry said. "I had a chat with him. And he refused to tell us anything too significant. But Zara Khan and Priya Iyer asked around. And yours wasn't the first shop he went to."
Freddie frowned. He had been looking vaguely worried ever since Harry Flooed in, Harry had noticed, and there seemed to be a permanent crease in between his eyebrows. He felt a pang of worry; this, he thought, was why you weren't meant to work cases involving family. He was already worried about how Freddie would handle all of this.
"Is he going to be arrested?" James asked.
Harry raised his eyebrow as he looked at Jamie, who was looking at him with bright eyes, his red hair messy and rumpled from the travel, his cup of tea sitting forgotten in front of him. "I'm not sure I should reveal any details of the case to you," he said now. "It's classified, James."
"Oh, come on," Jamie said, "Freddie'll just tell me whatever you tell him anyway, Dad. Won't you, Freddie?"
Freddie nodded. "Course," he said, like it was a foregone conclusion.
Harry thought of sitting at Grimmauld Place when he was fifteen, begging for more information about Voldemort, and had to force back a smile. "He didn't say too much, except… Well, he absolved you of the blame entirely, Freddie. Said it was all his fault. According to him, he drank too much, broke into the shop to look for a gift for his grandchildren, and passed out."
"So he was just unconscious? Not… injured?" Freddie asked, knitting his eyebrows together even more.
"No," Harry said. "The toxicology report at Mungo's is quite clear about that. He was poisoned. Mr. Thomas maintains that somebody must have spiked his drink. Or that the report must have been mistaken."
"Hang on," James said, holding a hand up. "Wait. He absolved Freddie?"
"He made it quite clear that Freddie had no part in him breaking into the shop, or what happened to him after," Harry said. "Not that anyone suspected you, Freddie, but now you're officially not a suspect. It seems to be quite open and shut, honestly."
He had been expecting Freddie to be relieved, but the frown on his face showed no sign of abating. "That's all he said?" he asked.
Harry nodded.
"And he didn't say anything else? About me?" Freddie asked.
"Why," said Harry slowly, "is there something to say? Did you have something to do with what happened to him?"
"No," said Freddie.
"Course not, Dad," Jamie said at the same time.
"You weren't even here when it happened, James," Harry said. "How are you so sure?"
"It's Freddie," Jamie said, like it was obvious. "How are you not sure? Come on, Dad."
Harry, who was completely unsurprised by Jamie's words, shook his head, and stood up. "Do you both want to come back with me? The shop will need to be shut until we officially conclude the investigation, so why don't you both come back home and have some dinner?"
To his surprise, Freddie shook his head. "Thanks, Uncle Harry, but I'm alright. I think I'll just get some sleep here." And sure enough, he looked completely exhausted.
Jamie looked at Freddie, and then loyally said, "I'll stay, too."
"You don't have to," Freddie said.
Jamie treated that with the disdain he seemed to think it deserved, and then looked at Harry. "Will you tell Mum I'm staying here tonight, Dad?"
"Sure," Harry said, and couldn't resist walking over to Jamie and Freddie and tugging them both into a hug. "You both come find us if you need anything, okay?" They were eighteen now – Freddie was nineteen, Merlin – adults in their own right. But Harry remembered the day Freddie was born, a tiny baby with a shock of dark hair and bright eyes. How George had looked at him in the room at Mungo's, serious in a way he seldom was, and had said, look at the little lad, isn't he incredible?
He remembered the day that he first held Jamie, and looked down at him, and thought, I will never let anything hurt you, ever.
"Course, Dad," Jamie said easily, pulling back from the hug.
James, who had never had a reason to doubt that someone – that his father – would come and help him if he needed it.
"Thanks, Uncle Harry," Freddie said, and gave him a smile that didn't quite seem to reach his eyes.
Harry walked to the fireplace, helping himself to some Floo powder. As he dropped the powder into the fireplace and stepped in, he thought he heard Freddie telling James, "Jamie, we've got to get to Mungo's, quickly."
