Chapter 5
Keep Moving, Harry
Harrington to Liverpool. Believes Potter there. Will bring him in if he finds him. Can't let him escape again! Determine suitable incarceration.
Cho Chang stared incredulously at the handwritten notes of Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour. Of course, as a humble filing clerk, Cho should not have been reading anything more than necessary to file official documents, but she never could control her curiosity. A page of sloppy notes attracted her attention, and she immediately realized that the sheet of parchment accidentally made its way into the stack of documents that she needed to file.
The word "Potter" jumped off the page and caused her to review the notes more carefully. "Potter," of course, could only refer to her former boyfriend, Harry Potter. She had not thought of Harry often since she graduated from Hogwarts a few weeks earlier, and she enjoyed her internship with the Ministry, considering herself fortunate to be assigned to the Minister of Magic's office. Of course, she had the advantage of influential parents who knew Scrimgeour personally, and she had met him socially on more than one occasion during her life.
Nevertheless, she intensely disliked the Minister. Something about him turned her stomach, and she considered him an entirely untrustworthy character. Of course, as an eighteen-year-old intern, her opinions did not matter, and Scrimgeour assumed that she would not be a security risk, having known her all of her life.
Why would Harry be in Liverpool?, she asked herself, knowing that Harry grew up in Surrey and spent his summers there. She quickly scanned the sheet for any other information, but found nothing more related to him. Why would the Minister care? And why does he want to "bring him in?" What does "suitable incarceration" mean? Cho instinctively distrusted the Minister's motives, and her long black hair swished as she quickly glanced side to side to make sure nobody saw her stuff the sheet of parchment into the pocket of her robe.
xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx
Evan Harrington observed Harry Potter slowly walk across the parking lot of his hotel, pull a key out of his pocket, and open the door to his room on the first floor of the two story structure. He glanced at his watch, noting the time - 11:20 pm. A light flickered from beneath the drapes covering the window of Harry's room.
The auror did not rush to action. Instead, he surveyed the hotel and quickly devised a plan. Firstly, he needed to prevent Harry's escape by apparation, so Evan moved to a dark area of the parking lot and carefully removed his wand from its holster, making sure that nobody saw him. He placed an anti-apparation spell on the building, and then moved towards the hotel. Instead of walking directly to Harry's room, he took five minutes to walk around the entire building, checking the back side of Harry's room to determine if the boy had a means of escape . Only a small window from the loo, not large enough for even a slender man to fit through.
Finally Evan decided that he could act. He knew that he needed to take great care when he entered the room. Potter would have only one means to avoid capture - violence. If half of the stories he had read about Potter could be believed, Evan should not underestimate him, though still, the boy was not even seventeen yet. With due care, this process should not be especially difficult. The auror passed several other rooms before finally approaching Harry's.
While Harrington prepared, Harry lay quietly on his bed, his wand in his hand. Often times at night he liked to twirl the wand in his fingers, usually absentmindedly. The initial depression of his parting with Melissa had eased slightly, but he continued to feel a full measure of sadness, and even anger. His shoes lay haphazardly on the floor, but otherwise he remained fully dressed.
He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a click from the lock on his door, and he saw the deadbolt turn open by itself. Instantaneously, Harry recognized the alohomora spell, and instinctively he rolled off his bed away from the door. Harrington threw open the door and rushed into the room, wand thrust in front of him, intending to stun Harry.
He saw Harry's back rolling off of the bed away from him, and Evan calmly said, "Stupefy," but at the same time, Harry excitedly shouted, "Protego." The stunner would have hit Harry's shoulder, but the shield blocked it. Half a second later, Harry dropped out of sight behind the bed. Evan swung the door closed and jumped to his left into a deep crouch, wand still outstretched. Several seconds of motionless silence ensued.
"I have orders to bring you to the Ministry, Mr. Potter. I am an auror. Please believe me when I say I have no desire to do you harm. It will be better for both of us if you come in quietly."
Unseen by Harrington, Harry's lips sneered, exposing his teeth. He remembered Dumbledore's words to the aurors trying to arrest him in his office and decided to paraphrase.
"I have no intention to come quietly," he snarled, "The Ministry has no right to arrest me. I have committed no crime."
"You cannot apparate from here, Mr. Potter, I have seen to that. You cannot escape through the loo; the window is far too small. Please recognize the hopelessness of your position." Evan moved a foot to the side and paused a few seconds to allow the information to be absorbed. "I accuse you of nothing, Mr. Potter. That is not my role in this process. My duty is to follow orders, and my orders are to bring you in, preferably unharmed."
"I understand your position, sir," Harry answered rapidly, "but you must understand mine. I cannot allow myself to be captured. There is too much that I have to do. The fate of our world depends on it. I don't know what Scrimgeour has against me. Why can't he just leave me alone?"
Harry heart pounded in his chest, and his mind raced in an attempt to devise an escape. Unfortunately, he found himself on all fours next to the bed, hardly in a position to make a move. Somehow he had to maneuver into a better position without allowing the auror a shot at him. Harrington's heart beat faster too, though not as hard as Harry's, due to the surprise that his initial attack failed. This would not be as easy as he hoped, and for the moment he found himself exposed. While he wanted to complete his task, he reminded himself that Potter was not a criminal or a death eater. In fact, he was "The Boy Who Lived," a national icon. He did not wish to cause him any harm.
In a matter of seconds, a thousand thoughts passed through Harry's mind. His hopeless position reminded him of crouching behind the gravestone in the cemetery after Voldemort regained his body. Somehow he came out of that predicament, and he intended to succeed again. He could NOT allow himself to be captured. Anger mixed with fear mixed with adrenalin, and Harry rapidly devised an audacious plan. In this instance, he decided, a good offense made the best defense. He crawled silently to the foot of the bed, thankful that the auror could not see him.
Evan moved slightly too, mindful not to remain in one place, and he felt indecisive. He would rather be dealing with a seasoned death eater than a teenage boy, whose tactics would be less predictable.
Suddenly he saw the boy spring from behind the bed shouting, "Stupefy, stupefy," sending two jets of light towards him. Evan instinctively flicked his wand to a silent "Protego" spell, and the shield appeared just in time to block the two powerful stunners, knocking the auror back a step. The second it took Evan to recover prevented him from avoiding the young wizard's next move.
Harry never paused, running straight at the auror and diving into him with all of his might. Evan reacted late and could not avoid Harry's shoulder smashing into his abdomen, knocking him into the wall behind him. For an instant he could not breathe, and Harry pressed his advantage by throwing the larger man to the carpet and falling on top of him, trying to pry the wand out of the auror's hand. The two struggled on the floor, each trying to control the wand of the other.
Harry's anger and audacity caught the auror by surprise, but he quickly responded and managed to use his superior strength to push Harry off of him. The effort prevented him from casting a spell, however, and Harry rolled to his left with his wand free in his right hand.
In mid roll, Harry yelled, "Stupefy," and at such close range he could not miss his target. He saw the unknown auror's body relax and his hand release his wand. Not trusting that he had actually succeeded in stunning the man, as soon as Harry touched the carpet, he lurched forward to grab the loose wand, whisking it to the wall. The man did not move.
The entire confrontation only took ten seconds, but Harry huffed as if he had just sprinted a mile. He gasped in a couple of deep breaths, and then tried to calm himself. He noticed that the door to his room remained slightly ajar, though fortunately nobody appeared to have seen the fight. Harry quickly stood to close the door, and then slid the deadbolt shut.
Now I've done it!, he thought to himself, realizing that he had just attacked and stunned an employee of the Ministry. Not just an employee, but an auror. No doubt the Ministry would consider that to be a crime, and he could be legally arrested. What should I do now?
Obviously he needed to leave Liverpool, but for the moment he merely stared at the body slumped on the carpet next to his bed. Not sure exactly how long his stunner would last, Harry levitated the body onto the bed and with his hands straightened the man's legs, placing his hands on his stomach.
"Incarcerous." Ropes flew out of Harry's wand and wrapped around the wrists and ankle of the auror. Satisfied that he no longer faced any immediate danger, Harry sat for a moment in the one chair in the small hotel room, and tried to absorb all that had happened.
In the last month, he accompanied Professor Dumbledore to the cave by the coast, returned to Hogwarts only to watch helplessly as Professor Snape blasted the headmaster out of the North Tower, attended Dumbledore's funeral, broke up with Ginny, spent a couple of argumentative weeks with the Dursleys while being followed by someone from the Ministry, left Little Whinging for Liverpool, met a beautiful muggle girl that he liked more than he cared to admit, and then stunned a Ministry auror. A rather eventful four weeks, but he felt frustrated that all of this prevented him from making any progress in his ultimate goal - destruction of Voldemort and his horcruxes.
He needed a new plan, but that would have to wait. Instead he grabbed his rucksack and started to stuff his clothes into it. First item on the new agenda was to escape again, this time more carefully. Somehow this auror managed to find him, and Harry determined that he would not make it so easy this time. Five minutes later, he placed the packed rucksack on the chair by the front door, glancing back at the man lying on the bed. The man began to stir, and Harry realized that soon he would wake.
Taking his wand, Harry intended to stun the auror again, but instead he waited, watching the man gradually regain consciousness. Harry decided that he would mine some information out of him while holding the upper hand.
Evan opened his eyes a few seconds later, with a terrific headache and completely disoriented. Several seconds passed before he understood why he lay on a bed in an unfamiliar room with his hands and legs bound. As his memory returned, he closed his eyes tightly and moaned.
"Sorry I had to stun you, sir," Harry apologized , shocking the auror who assumed that Harry would be long gone by now. Evan quickly regained his composure and turned his head towards the teenager. "I don't blame you," Harry continued, "You're just doing your job, but I have a job to do too. I can't let Scrimgeour or anyone else stop me."
"What is it that you must do?" asked Evan from the bed. His eyes scanned as much of the room as he could in an attempt to locate his wand until he noticed Harry picking it up from the dresser.
"I'll hold on to this for the moment," Harry informed Evan, "and what I have to do will remain my business. The real question is why is the Ministry after me? What have I done that you've been following me around Little Whinging and somehow found me in Liverpool? Am I really that important?"
"Apparently you are, Mr. Potter," Harrington answered from the bed. Harry had not tied him up so much that he could not sit up if he wanted, but with Harry's wand pointed at his chest, Evan remained on his back. "I figured that you would have a better explanation than I, because as far as I'm concerned, I've been wasting my time for the past weeks."
"Who are you?" Harry asked, realizing that he did not even know the auror's name, "Is anybody else after me?"
"My name is Evan Harrington, and I don't think I need answer your second question. I've been an auror for over fifteen years, though you may not believe it based on my performance tonight. Quite embarrassing, if you want to know the truth."
"Pure luck," Harry responded, "I've had my share of it over the years, though I can't say my luck lately has been the best."
"I saw the girl today, once I finally spotted you. She seems quite nice, very pretty," Evan commented. The two men seemingly held no animosity towards each other, feeling more like participants after a tennis match, one the victor and one the vanquished, but aware that they would face each other again.
"She is nice," Harry agreed wistfully, "but I won't be seeing her any longer. You're not going after her, are you?" The thought suddenly hit Harry like a brick to his head. He could not allow Melissa to become involved in his problems.
"Don't worry, Mr. Potter," Evan assured him, "I heard enough to know that she is a muggle who doesn't know anything about your life. No reason to waste my time. I'll be working hard enough trying to track you down, since I assume you will be leaving soon."
Harry could not help but release a chuckle. A game. Nothing more than a game. They were playing a glorified version of hide-and-seek. He relaxed a little, believing Harrington's statement that he would leave Melissa alone.
"There's really no reason. She knows nothing, not even that I'm a wizard," Harry added, wanting to be extra sure that the girl would be left out of the game. Neither spoke for a few moments, and Harry decided that the time to leave had arrived. "You know that I'll have to stun you again. I'm sorry. I'll untie you afterwards."
Evan nodded, "I understand. At least I'll be comfortable here. Leave your key on the dresser, and I'll turn it in for you. I may as well get a good night sleep while I'm here. You'll be long gone by the time I wake up." Harry continued to point his wand at Evan, but he did not appear ready to cast the spell. Evan added, "I knew your parents at Hogwarts, you know, especially your mother. I liked her. She always treated me nicely."
Harry understood what the auror meant to convey. No hard feelings. They each would do what they had to do, but not out of hatred.
"Maybe we'll meet again under more pleasant circumstances," Harry replied kindly, for he truly could not bring himself to dislike the man. A moment later, he lifted his wand. "Stupefy."
xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx
"As we've discussed, we need a better source in the Ministry," explained Arthur Weasley to a special meeting of the Order of the Phoenix, "I'm out of the loop now, and so is Kingsley, though he still manages to provide some valuable information. Our main goal is to penetrate the Minister's office itself. All of our sources during Fudge's administration have been removed when Scrimgeour cleaned house."
Arthur's wife, Molly Weasley, passed out sheets of parchment to the dozen participants before returning to her seat. The members glanced at the list of names.
"Molly just handed you a list of all employees assigned to the Minister of Magic's office, right down to cleaning crew and interns. We need to identify potential sources." Arthur pushed back his seat and took his sheet to the wall. "Engorgio." The list expanded ten-fold, and he stuck it to the wall so that they could all see the names. "Let's go down the list."
Hours passed as they parsed each name, discussing the possibilities of recruitment to their cause. One by one, they crossed off almost every name as unsuitable, and they realized that Scrimgeour had carefully chosen his staff, filling it with loyalists. Only two names remained in tact, with only the six interns left to discuss.
"What exactly do interns do?" asked Molly, suffering from a terrific headache.
"Filing, mostly," Arthur explained, "and odds and ends. They would not be in a position to overhear the Minister, but they do see a lot of documents. And they are almost invisible. Nobody takes notice of them. An intern's usefulness would be limited, but still helpful. At this point, we can't be too choosy."
"What about Chang?" asked Xenophilius Lovegood, a recently admitted member of the Order, "I know about her. Was in Luna's house at Hogwarts. Wasn't she Harry Potter's girlfriend for a short time? I recall Luna saying something about that. She wouldn't let me publish it in the Quibbler, though I wanted to."
"Yes she was," Molly replied. She considered herself the expert of the group on Harry, and certainly kept tract of his love life as best she could. In fact, her own daughter currently suffered from the effects of her recent break up from Harry. "She was Harry's first girlfriend, though it did not last long, and I gather ended rather unpleasantly."
Kingsley Shacklebolt, a tall, bald black man, paced along the wall to stretch his legs. He knew the Chang family well, and had known Cho all of her life.
"The Changs have known Scrimgeour for many years, though I know that in private, their opinion of him is not high. Cho dislikes him. I've run into her a few times these last couple of weeks. She might be worth looking into. Smart girl when she wants to be, though she can be emotional."
"OK," decided Arthur, "We have to start somewhere."
xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx
I determined that Potter had in fact taken the muggle train to Liverpool upon leaving his home in Privet Drive. After my investigation, I discovered the hotel in which he stayed. Unfortunately, he left before I arrived. His destination is unknown.
Evan Harrington reviewed his brief report to his superior, knowing that the report would make its way to the Minister himself. He saw no reason to go into the details of his embarrassment in Liverpool. The fact of the matter was that Potter left that city, current location unknown. They did not need to know more.
The knowing omission of his failure certainly protected him from embarrassment, but he also intended to protect Potter. If he reported that the boy attacked a Ministry auror, Potter could be formally arrested and legitimately prosecuted and imprisoned. Evan did not want that. The boy had done nothing to deserve such treatment, and Evan had no intention to facilitate it.
As he folded the parchment and slipped it into an envelope, he felt strange. Never had this occurred before in his career. He did not want to succeed in this mission.
"Keep moving, Harry," he whispered under his breath, "Keep a step ahead of me."
xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx
"It's not especially interesting work, but I am learning a lot. The Minister's office is an extremely busy place."
Cho Chang sipped her iced tea and began to eat her lunch in the Ministry cafeteria. Across from her sat Kingsley Shacklebolt, a long-time friend of her family. She had known Kingsley her entire life; nevertheless, his invitation to meet her for lunch surprised her. Perhaps, she surmised, her parents asked him to check up on her, always being the over-protective types.
"I'm sure it will be a good experience for you, Cho," the tall, bald auror assured her, "We all have to start somewhere. My first assignment after I received my auror certification was to organize two hundred years of old files that nobody had looked at for decades. Not exactly the glamorous mission I expected. Took me a good three months."
Kingsley examined the young woman sitting across from him, newly turned eighteen years of age and a recent graduate of Hogwarts. Certainly he had a fondness for her, having held her as a baby, yet he never felt that he truly knew her. She could be overly emotional one minute and coldly calculating the next. Her beauty could not be denied. Long shimmering black hair fell down her back, perfectly framing the narrow eyes and thin nose of her face. Always concerned with her appearance, she dressed in the latest fashions, but only if they suited her. She had impeccable taste in her clothing.
"Did my parents ask you to check up on me?" Cho asked, digging into her salad, "Your invitation surprised me."
"I did promise them that I'd keep an eye on you," Kingsley admitted in his deep baritone, "but I would have done that anyway. They have a right to be worried, given the state of our world at the moment."
Cho nodded. Dumbledore's death, seen as a great victory for Lord Voldemort, shook the magical world to its core. Everyone held their collective breaths, waiting for Voldemort's next move. Sooner or later, the hammer would fall, and who knew what havoc would result?
"Do you see the Minister much?" asked Kingsley, innocently glancing around the crowded cafeteria to check for eavesdroppers.
"A couple of times, but not often. He usually enters the back way, and I think he has a special floo in his office." Cho also looked about the large room nervously. When she received Kingsley's invitation, just a day after stuffing Scrimgeour's handwritten notes into her pocket, she thought it must be fate. Who better to show it to than Kingsley, who everyone knew to be an opponent of Minister Scrimgeour. He would never turn her in for her impropriety.
"You've always disliked him. Do you still feel the same way?" asked Kingsley, trying to edge his way into the true purpose of this lunch.
"Dislike is not a strong enough word for it," Cho responded firmly, "I know mum and dad have known him for years, but I don't like him at all. I don't trust him." She shook her head in disgust, the light shimmering off of her sleek black hair.
"Neither do I," whispered Kingsley. He could not think of a subtle way to broach the subject, so he decided to dive right in. "Cho, you know that I oppose Scrimgeour, right?" The young woman nodded, and they both glanced about the cafeteria again. Kingsley spoke even softer, "Would you be willing to help us, Cho. I belong to a group which opposes Scrimgeour's approach to the upcoming war. We have our own plans to fight You Know Who, but we need a source in his office. Our previous sources have been reassigned, and we have to know what the Ministry is up to."
Cho's narrow eyes widened in surprise, but she did not respond. Kingsley took that to mean that he should proceed.
"We know that you can't give us a lot of information, and we don't want you to take a lot of risks. All we would want is for you to glance at any documents that come your way for anything that may be of interest to us. We would give you instructions of what to look for."
Cho remained silent for several seconds, and Kingsley allowed her the time to consider his request. She began to nod her head slightly, and smiled.
"I'll do it," she declared, "and I can give you one document right now. It's in my pocket, and I think you'll be interested in it." She lowered her already low voice. "It's about Harry Potter. Scrimgeour wants to arrest him."