Chapter Six
Harry's Search
1
The next day, Harry kept his promise to Briana.
Creighton Squires's funeral was almost as crowded as Dumbledore's back in '96. The people were all dressed in black jackets and robes to fend off the bitter wind as they stood around the casket, but other than temperature it was sunny and bright outside. In comparison to the forlorn attendees, this beautiful December weather was being quite unreasonable when it came to paying respects.
Harry stood behind a few rows of people that made up the inner layers of guests crowded around the burial sight. Briana and her three sisters and four brothers each made speeches on their father's behalf, the guests listening soberly to each one. Harry couldn't pay attention. His headache had finally worn off and he had even gotten a few hours of sleep before work and the funeral, but he still couldn't keep his worries at bay.
As Briana – the youngest and last of Squires's children to speak – searched for words to sum up her father's considerably significant life, Harry glanced around the crowd. On his left was an elderly man (like most of the guests in sight). However, a very pale woman directly to the right caught his eye. Light skin, light hair. He was immediately reminded of the woman he'd stunned in the Squire's home, but he knew it wasn't her. This woman was older, in her late twenties, perhaps, and she was pale in a different sense: washed out, almost unhealthily pallid, as if drained of life. Her eyes were on the closed casket, unwavering and unblinking.
As the last words were being said by Briana, the pale woman spoke:
"It isn't right," she said softly but clearly. "None of this is right."
At first Harry wasn't sure if she was speaking to him or the other person beside her because she hadn't addressed anyone in particular. He didn't answer just in case she was merely thinking aloud.
"Was the body clean when you saw him, Mr. Potter," asked the woman, finally specifying who she was talking to, though her eyes were still trained on the casket as it was lowered into the ground. "They didn't... mark him up, did they?"
Harry's brow furrowed as he peered sideways at her and shook his head. "We think it was a Killing Curse." She must have read that he was on the murder scene in the Daily Prophet.
"If they had marked him up – if they had tortured him like they do most of their enemies, I don't know what I would do."
Her voice sounded familiar, he just couldn't put his finger on it. It was fluid and pleasant in spite of the words she said.
The casket was in the ground and the flock was dispersing. The woman turned to Harry. Out of politeness he didn't try sneak off with the crowd. Her eyes were a light sage green and their stare was intense. He hadn't noticed it before, but he could now see that her fair hair hung in gentle waves over her shoulders and very far down her back, so long that it reached past her rump. The length was really quite impressive.
"How do you keep from killing them when you find them, Mr. Potter?" she said. "How do you practice restraint when they attack the people you're protecting?"
"I remind myself that I'm above their methods," he told her. "I'd be stooping to their level if I killed them."
It was the woman's turn to frown as she looked back at the elderly Squires children huddled around the open grave of their father. "Sometimes," she said, "you have to crawl with the cockroaches in order to exterminate them, Mr. Potter."
He felt awkward talking ethics with this strange woman and was eager to change the subject. "How did you know Squires?"
"We were friends a long time ago," she answered. "I hadn't spoken to him in years, but he had always been very kind to me, despite my faults."
Everything about her was familiar to him in some way. He didn't know how, but for some reason she reminded him of the Ministry of Magic. The way she looked was like... he just couldn't put his finger on it. She had similar features to werewolves in human form – pallid, with darkness beneath the eyes – yet she definitely wasn't a werewolf.
"Creighton was an amazing man," she continued as he pondered this. "Even blind and nearly crippled, he never stopped working. Albus would have been proud to hear it. I wish I had seen both of them once more before their funerals. They were right about me always being late."
She then gave Harry a bitter smile and suddenly it all fell into place. Her canine teeth were exceptionally lengthy and her cheeks were sunken in emaciation. He saw something different in her eyes then, not only intensity, but years and years of worldly knowledge. The same look Dumbledore's eyes had held.
"You're a-"
"On the mark as usual, Mr. Potter," she interrupted. "Yes, I am a vampire. And now, I'm the last existing, if not living, student of Hogwarts's 1858 graduating class."
"How are you staying in the sunlight?"
"It's not very comfortable, but there are ways of protecting one's undead self." She held her left hand up for him to see a jeweled band on her ring finger. "The gems keep me safe. A gift from my late husband."
"Did you make him late?" Harry inquired, looking her over. The vampire merely smiled in a slightly bemused way. "Why, precisely, did you single me out today, Miss...?"
"You don't need to know my name. It's worthless now anyway. I singled you out because someone in the Ministry squealed. You have a leek."
"A leek," said Harry. "What do you mean? You know of someone passing information?"
She nodded once. "Yes. One of your Aurors was getting news about Optimates through Creighton. Whoever the leek is found out and reported to his boss. When we found this out, three of us immediately went to check on Creighton, only to find him murdered."
"Wait a second," Harry hissed angrily. "Are you part of the Blood Traitors too?"
"I am."
"Then exposing yourself to me wasn't such a good idea-"
"I could care less of your opinion of my colleagues, Mr. Potter, but you must be up to par on the facts," she cut in, her calm fluid tone still firmly in place. "We know your theory: you think that we murdered Creighton. I'm disgusted by the thought. You can thank the Optimates for the loss of one of the Order's and the Blood Traitors' closest allies."
"A vampire with morals," Harry seethed. "That's a first for me."
"I'm both surprised and disappointed by you Mr. Potter. Perhaps the Ministry has ruined you, but I would have thought, from your past experiences in life, that you had learned not be so prejudiced against people who are different... even those who are not all human. Like Mr. Lupin."
She nodded to someone standing behind Harry and he turned to find Remus frowning at him from a few feet away. Harry swore under his breath and hoped with all his might that Remus hadn't heard what he'd said. In order to make her escape, the Vampire had latched onto his blunder and used it against him at the worst possible moment. She walked past Harry and bowed her head politely to Remus – her fellow exile – before leaving them both behind.
"Remus, what are -" Harry blurted, but Remus interrupted him:
"Tonks asked if I would help you on your search, because something urgent was happening at the office. Some new lead on her case that she couldn't put off."
"What about your office?"
"My only appointments are being seen to by my assistant. This is more important," Remus told him.
"Remus," Harry began again, "I don't know if you heard what I said to that Vam– er – woman, but I-"
"I did in fact, and I agree with her, whoever she is."
"You mean you don't know her?"
"Not all Vampires report to me, Harry. Some aren't even registered because they're so hard to catch. Only the ones with morals or a court sentence see me each month."
Harry sighed. "Look. She's right. That was uncalled for, and I'm sorry. I'm just so damn frustrated."
Remus looked at him understandingly, even if he was annoyed. "Of course. That's why I'll be helping you find Agape. Do you know where she might have been heading before she disappeared?"
"Actually, I thought of some places she goes when she's looking for information. I know she was going to try to find some woman named Melencolia Snook a few days ago. She might have gone out to ask around."
"Where to first?"
2
"Okay, so maybe she wasn't looking for information on anyone," Harry sighed, running a hand through his black hair. They had gone to eight different places looking for a trail on Agape and none had yielded even a smidgen of promise. It seemed the last person to see her was Crocker from Harry's office.
"Maybe she was looking for a good Thai restaurant," Remus offered, jerking his thumb toward a sign advertising the menu of the Thai place they were walking past. "Didn't you say she was going for lunch?"
"I could go for lunch right about now. I'm starving," Harry groaned. "But I wouldn't be able to eat anyway."
"Are you sure we're not overlooking some place?"
"No, I'm not. She could have been doing anything. Lunch, research, shopping... confession. Who knows?" He was running out of ideas fast, and they were no closer to their goal. He stopped and leaned wearily against the bricks of an apartment building that backed up against the stores along the street. Remus stood silently next to him, giving him a chance to think, or just waiting for something to happen. An idea, a memory, any clue that might help them.
"I just remember that I was going to Hogwarts to see McGonagall..." Harry said, trailing off. "No, wait. I put it off for the next day, which is now yesterday. Maybe Agape went to see her in my stead."
"Quite possible," Remus agreed. "To Hogsmeade then?"
"I think it's our last hope."
So they Apparated a close as they could to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which was the formerly small town of Hogsmeade. When Harry was in school, it consisted mostly of the shops and inns that made up the center of town, surrounded by the village homes. The residential area had increased considerably in the years since. It still couldn't be considered a large town, and the new residents were just as strange, if not weirder, than the previous lot.
The two men walked toward the gates of Hogwarts, but just then, a thought hit Harry and he stopped.
"What is it, Harry?" Remus inquired.
"There's another place she could have gone!" Harry exclaimed, smacking his forehead with his palm. "I can't believe I forgot it! We hardly ever us it."
"Where?"
Harry couldn't remember the name, having only been there maybe three times. "That insane store with all the rare books," he said, hoping his friend would know what he was talking about.
"Hawkins Hard to Find Books?"
"Yes! That's it!"
"Follow me. We can check there first since its closer."
Remus had them there in less then ten minutes. They squeezed past the cramped spaces between shelves and display tables until they reached the back counter. Behind it they found a black haired youth with a crooked nose. He didn't look up as they approached, but flipped through a magazine instead.
"Hello, mates," he said in a humdrum tone. "What can I do for you?"
Harry leaned over the counter, saying, "You can answer a few questions."
The kid looked up with brow furrowed, but as soon as he saw Harry his eyes grew round as coins. "Merlin's Beard! I mean – uh – Hello, Sir. Questions, you said?" He caught sight of Remus too, and he relaxed ever so slightly. "Hi, Mr. Lupin. Doing alright?"
"Yes I am, Remy. And how are you?"
He eyed Harry as he answered: "Well, I'm guessing the boredom is about to end around here... Why do I need to answer questions? Did I do something wrong?"
"I should hope not," Remus replied in a reassuring voice. "We're just looking for someone."
"Have you seen my Assistant, Agape?" Harry demanded.
"Well, sure," Remy said hesitantly. "She was in here the day before yesterday. She wanted to use the Ledger."
"Day before yesterday?" said Harry.
"Yeah."
"And you haven't seen her since," Remus asked.
"No. She just came in, got the information she needed and left in a hurry."
"Who was she looking for?"
"Some foreign bloke... An Italian, I think."
"Show me," Harry ordered. Finally they were getting somewhere! Maybe this would lead to Agape.
Remy took them into the little room in the back where the enormous Ledger was stored. He opened it and poked at the various lists with his wand (Nationality, Appearance, Height, Hair, etc.) until he found a huge list of black haired, six-foot-tall men. Going down the list for a few minutes, he finally found who he was searching for.
"There's the git," said Remy, pointing to the face of an attractive man that Harry instantly recognized. "She was really happy to find him – for some reason – and then she dashed out of here as soon as she'd glanced at his profile."
Harry sat down in Remy's chair before the Ledger to read the profile of the man who had stolen his chart and stunned him the same day that Agape disappeared. His name was Roman Luciano, an Italian that immigrated to the UK from France about ten years ago. He was a criminal plain and simple...
"So, Mr. Lupin, how's Lenore?" Remy said to Remus, trying to make small talk in order to ease his nerves. He had been one of Remus's daughter's friends at school, but he hardly got to see her these days. "She like that Ministry job?"
Remus was staring intensely at the profile with an expression that Remy couldn't quite place. He soon realized Remy had asked him a questioned, however, and answered him. "She's doing great. I'll tell her you asked about her."
"Antonia, my girl friend, is in your wife's Divination class," Remy mentioned. "She says that Professor Lupin is the coolest teacher at Hogwarts."
"Well, it helps that she's an actual Seer," Remus admitted. "Not to speak badly of Professor Trelawny, of course."
Harry was reading over Luciano's profile much more thoroughly than Agape had. He read that the man was involved with the Ministry, passing them information on the Optimates. He even helped protect a young girl (Julissa R. Culver) from the Neo Death Eaters the summer before last. However, he was arrested just last year for breaking into Hogwarts and threatening the life of that same girl. He was hospitalized shortly, before being carted off to Azkaban where he escaped in the mass break out of 2016. Luciano seemed to get in and out of trouble fairly easily. And what kind of luck did you have to have to be freed from Azkaban before you could even be legally convicted in court?
Luciano hadn't been seen since then, but he was definitely considered a threat to anyone he came in contact with. Harry could vouch for that by the uniquely painful stunning hex the bloke had sent at him. He was curious about the girl who'd been endangered. Had Luciano really gotten close enough to threaten a student's life? His worries instantly shifted to his own daughter, Kyla.
"How do I search?" Harry demanded of Remy, interrupting the quiet conversation he was having with Remus.
The kid didn't say anything; he just flipped to the very front page of the ledger that was void of all lists. "Write it with your wand," he explained. "If you already know the name, it will flip straight to the page for you."
Remy and Remus watched as Harry spelled out the girl's name:
Julissa R. Culver.
Both of them became deathly silent then, which Harry was just thinking was a bit odd, when the Ledger landed on the page he was looking for. Culver had attended Hogwarts from 2009 to 2016. She accidentally got involved with the Optimates and was hunted by them when she was sixteen. Luciano helped in hiding her. He returned her to Britain for her last year at Howarts, but, for a reason untold, ended up trying to kill her early in the year. She dropped out four months before she graduated and was never seen after that.
In his hurry to read about her, he'd completely looked over her physical profile and the picture. When he saw it, he paused, studying it very carefully, not believing his eyes. It was her! The woman he'd stunned at Creighton Squire's murder scene. She looked different in her photo because her hair was lighter – bleached platinum actually – rather than the more natural color he'd seen. She also had dreadlocks in the picture, instead of the straight locks she had now. Still, it had to be her; the hair was the only difference. The face, the pasty skin, the spooky ice blue eyes. It couldn't be anyone else.
"Why are you looking at Jules's profile," Remy asked with a deep frown. He looked pale all of the sudden, and very uneasy.
Remus quickly spoke up. "Remy, perhaps you should wait outside..."
"Do you know everybody," Harry asked Remy incredulously.
"No, but I know her," Remy said. "How do you know who she is?"
"Tell me about her," commanded the Auror. The more information he could get the better. He was solving two crimes at once after all.
Pink patches blossomed over Remy's face as his frown turned into a scowl. "You can read."
"Remy," Remus tried again, but Harry interrupted:
"How do you know her?"
"We went to school together," was all he would say.
"That's it? You haven't seen her recently?"
"Of course not," Remy snapped, sounding furious at this inquiry. "Why do you want to know about her?"
"Harry, please," Remus tried to intervene once more, but to no avail.
"I have reason to believe she was present at a murder scene," Harry told Remy. "If you know anything about her, I'd suggest you spill it."
Remus put a hand to his forehead and sighed resignedly, but Remy looked disgusted. "Is this some kind of sick joke?" he shouted, surprising Harry a bit. "Are you saying Jules was a murderer?"
"I can't say, but I recently saw her at a murder scene. Surely you've read the papers about the Squires murder?"
"What! That's not possible!"
"Why not?"
"Harry, this isn't exactly –"
"Because she'd dead, you git! Didn't you look at her dates?" The young man pointed angrily at Culver's profile, labeled: Born 6 January, 1998 / Died 28 July, 2016. "How could you have seen her if she's been dead for over a year?"
Harry's resolve waned for a moment, but something told him there was some kind of mistake. They had to be the same woman. He'd memorized her face as soon as he'd seen her standing in front of Squire's dead body. He knew he was right – had to be right...
"Tell me about her," Harry asked again. "Please. Anything."
"No!" Remy shouted, nearly in tears. "You can't just come in here and start interrogating me about my dead friend! Saying that she murdered someone! She would never do that. She was like my sister. She'd never – Just get out! I want you out of here now!"
"Alright! That's it!" Remus broke in, finally getting their attention. He turned to Remy and placed a hand in his shoulder. "Remy, I'm sorry about all this. We'll leave. Come on, Harry."
Harry reluctantly followed his former mentor, figuring it wasn't fair to upset the kid any further.
Remy watched them go, trying to steady his breathing. Once they had left the room, he slammed the door and leaned his back flat against it for support. "Merlin's Beard," he muttered under his breath at the whole situation. "Holy crap! I just kicked Harry Potter out of Mr. Hawkins's store! I'm so fired..."
Still, he deserved it: talking about Jules when the grass on her grave still didn't quite match the rest of the grave yard yet. Remy would know, since he visited her just four days ago. He'd seen the bloody casket buried! She was dead. Gone. Finis. Even the amazing escape artist, Jules Culver, couldn't have escaped death...
...Right?
3
"Okay, Remus, spill it," Harry said once they were standing outside and walking again. "What do you know about Luciano and Culver?"
"I don't know much about Luciano at all, but I have met him," Remus replied, speaking calmly. "He helped the Ministry out a few times before he was sent to Azkaban. Last time I saw him, he broke my leg – just to give you an idea about him. However, I knew Julissa quite well. She was my daughter's best friend at Hogwarts... She was murdered a year and five months ago by an unknown Optimus. I went to the funeral. She is not who you saw, Harry."
"She has to be. Trust me she looks exactly –"
Remus interrupted him with a bit of reason: "Harry, can you honestly say you memorized her face in the few seconds before you were stunned? Jules did have a unique look, but I'm sure there are other women with similar features."
"Women that just happen to be around nineteen-years-old, platinum blond, and involved with Optimates affairs?" Harry countered with his own logic.
Remus paused, frowning at the ground. He could see Harry's point, but it disturbed him deeply. Jules had been a master at escaping sticky situations – but faking her own death?
Actually, it wasn't so far fetched the more he thought about it.
"But, what if it's someone acting like her? Impersonating her," he said finally.
"It's very possible," Harry agreed. "After all, we've seen it done plenty of times. Did you ever see her body after she died?"
"No," Remus replied, "it was a closed casket. The ministry said she was unrecognizable, but genetically Julissa Culver."
"It would almost have to be someone impersonating her then," Harry said. "Do you know of anyone who would want to be her?"
"I don't know about wanting to be her, but if the Optimates were trying to scare the Blood Traitors, maybe..."
"Why would seeing her scare them?"
"From what I've gathered of the Blood Traitors, she helped in beginning the group. Her and I'm guessing Alton Drake and a few others," Remus explained.
"You learned this from Logan Bireley," Harry assumed aloud, still a little miffed about Remus not giving him Bireley's file.
"Some if it, yes. But, Harry, what about Agape? We can't forget about her. What did you gather from reading Luciano's profile?"
He was right, Agape was more important than the BT at the moment, but it was convenient timing on Remus's part: changing the subject just as Bireley and the Traitors came up again. Nonetheless, Harry answered the question.
"We know that someone saw her after Crocker that day," he said, "and that she went looking for information on Luciano after she got into the lift with him. Remy said that she left in a hurry after she read his profile..." and he trailed off.
"Where do you suppose she went?"
Harry recalled all the information he could from the profile and then asked himself, 'where would I go if I had just found out information about a Blood Traitor and/or Optimates?' Probably to find him and arrest him... 'Okay, where would Agape go if she had just found information about a Blood Traitor and/or Optimates?' Maybe to find more information? That sounded like her. Only where else would she go? None of her other haunts had seen her.
The solution, when it hit him at last, was simple and very Agape. She would get as close to Luciano as she possibly could without actually meeting him face to face, thus, going someplace where his character would be reflected. The best place for that would have to be his home. Harry's frown morphed into an excited grin when he realized he still remembered the address from the Ledger, which would have been the first thing Agape had looked for.
"Remus! I think she went to his apartment!" he exclaimed.
"Where's that?"
Harry told him the place, and they decided to split up for now. He would go to Hogwarts and talk to McGonagall about Julissa R. Culver, while Remus went to check out Luciano's home. Maybe they could find Agape and the Blood Traitors before morning.
(Author's note: Okay, I wrote this chapter twice. The first version was all about Agape with the Blood Traitors, but the whole thing just didn't seem right. I was taking out all of the mystery behind the BT. So I tucked that one away for my own personal reference and wrote this one with Harry searching for Agape with Remus. Maybe I'll print the first one some day as a short story. I'll try not to take so long on the next chapter!)