Chapter 2: Fire Over England
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Harry was pacing anxiously around his cluttered, chaotic office. He looked at his dented gold watch, once the property of Fabian Prewett, and saw that it had hardly been a minute since he last checked it. It had been a little over two years since Voldemort's defeat, and once the initial chaos of rounding up his followers had subsided, he was formally given Auror training and induction. Since then, he found that this job was laughably easier compared to the Horcrux hunt. True, there was always some nasty business every few months, but he discovered that most Dark wizards had neither the brains nor the cunning of his former adversary. Harry wasn't complaining - he felt immensely relieved after Voldemort's death, and the relative ease of his new job gave him more time to spend with Ginny - once she had finished her last year at Hogwarts with Luna and, to no one's surprise, Hermione, who insisted on finishing her seventh year despite Kingsley's repeated assurance that there was no need. Needless to say, she attained an 'O' on all her NEWTs.
The office door opened. Harry looked up expectantly at a besieged Ron entering the office, floating a large stack of blank parchments. Ron waved his wand, causing the parchments to spread about the room and hover motionlessly.
"Anything new?" Harry asked eagerly.
"There have been a few more Marks near Kent but whoever cast them disappeared before we got there," Ron said. "We've got Magical Law Enforcement getting rid of them and we've dispatched a team of Obliviators for any Muggles who might've seen the Marks."
Frowning slightly, Harry stood up and flicked his wand at one of the blank hovering papers. A map suddenly drew itself on the parchment; he jabbed at it several times, causing small fiery dots to appear on the maps to mark spots where the Dark Marks had been cast.
"I still can't see any pattern," Harry said. "The Marks are cropping up all around the country but the buildings themselves are perfectly ordinary."
"But all of the buildings were empty," Ron added, "Hang on though - don't the Death Eaters usually cast them when they've killed someone?"
"Yeah, but we don't know if it's the Death Eaters," Harry said. "Greyback's the only one left, but he wasn't part of Voldemort's inner circle. I doubt that he knows how to cast the Dark Mark."
"But then who else could've done it? It's not like You-Know-Who wrote a book on it." Ron said.
Harry opened his mouth, but just then the office door opened and Hermione burst in.
"You two had better come down for this one," she said breathlessly. "We caught someone casting the Mark over a Muggle home in Bristol. He killed the family too. We're in Courtroom 10."
Without waiting for their response at her revelation, she gracefully twisted and Disapparated from the office; Harry and Ron immediately followed suit. They found Hermione and a group of wizards standing around a ragged man strapped to a chair. At once, the crowd parted, allowing Harry and Ron to properly see the suspect. His face was cadaverous and gaunt. He had sallow cheeks and pale lips clenched tightly shut. His black hair extended far below his neck, covering his dark, heavy-lidded eyes. His shirt was heavily tattered, revealing a pallid, bony chest with several faded tattoos. Harry pulled out his wand and warily pointed it at the man.
"Who are you? Why did you kill that Muggle family?" he demanded.
The man showed no indication of having heard him. Furrowing his eyebrows, Harry grabbed the man's chin and lifted it, jabbing the wand at his throat.
"Did you cast the Dark Mark?" Harry growled.
Once again, the man was silent. Harry pressed his wand further towards the man's chin.
"Why did you kill that family of Muggles?" he snarled, to complete silence.
Something was wrong. The man's eyes were glossy and unfocused, as though he had a concussion. His skin was cold and clammy to touch and his hands visibly shook. Harry let go of his chin and lowered his wand. He wordlessly motioned for Ron and Hermione to follow him outside the room.
"Muffliato." he muttered, pointing at the door.
"Hermione, I need you to tell me exactly what happened." Harry said.
"We got a report that another Dark Mark had been sighted in Bristol, so we Apparated there. We saw a flash of green light and we followed it to the house. When we got there, we saw the bodies of a man and woman near the front yard. And the one who killed them - that man inside - he just fell to the ground and started sobbing. He kept apologizing and saying "I'm sorry, I didn't know, I didn't know" and he hasn't spoken a word since we've detained him. We've ran basic tests on his wand and it's fairly old; it's been inactive for a long time - nearly seventeen years. I've already had it sent to check its owner in case it isn't his. But one thing to note was that almost all the spells used in the past month were Killing Curses."
Harry, with a slight chill in his blood, turned to Ron and asked, "Did you notice his eyes? They were completely unfocused and he was acting really disoriented. Remember back in our second year when Lockhart tried to use a Memory Charm on us? There was a flash of green light right before the cave collapsed. Did Lockhart act like that bloke right after he was hit?"
"Bloody hell, you're right - he did! You reckon he got hit with a Memory Charm?" Ron asked, his eyes going wide.
"Maybe, but I don't think that's the only thing going on. When I touched him, his skin was cold and clammy. Like he'd seen- "
"A Dementor!" Ron gasped, "But how can that be possible? We have all the Dementors in Britain on lockdown. Hermione, did you feel a weird cold?"
"No - there were none of the usual signs of a Dementor there. And it's not their breeding season either. I don't know any other creature that could do something like that to a person unless- unless it was a Lethifold!" she cried.
"What's a Lethifold?" Ron and Harry asked automatically.
Hermione gave them both an familiar look of exasperation, which caused them both to grin feebly.
"A lethifold is a carnivorous and highly dangerous magical creature. It resembles a black cloak and suffocates its victims at night before eating and digesting them. And the only known defense against them is the Patronus Charm, just as with Dementors. But they're an extremely rare species, found only in the tropics." she explained.
"Then what's a Lethifold doing all the way out in the middle of Bristol?" Ron asked.
"I don't know, but whatever is going on isn't good. We need to keep this investigation completely under wraps," Harry said. "Hermione, let Kingsley know about this immediately. Ron, can you finish interrogating him? There's someone I need to see."
He gave a meaningful look at both of them until their eyes widened in understanding. Hermione immediately Disapparated and Ron reentered the room. Harry Disapparated back to his office. He walked to the fireplace and grabbed a handful of Floo powder.
"Hogwarts!" he cried and threw the powder into the fire, which turned emerald green.
He stepped into the green flames and clambered out of the fireplace into the Headmaster's Office. It was completely empty except for the portraits of the former Headmasters. Most of them were asleep, but a few, including Albus Dumbledore's were watching him in interest.
"Harry, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Dumbledore's portrait asked.
"Hello, Professor. I need some advice." Harry told him.
Harry explained to him about the man they detained and Harry's suspicions about him. All the while, Dumbledore's portrait was looking sharply at Harry, and though he did not get the usual feeling of being X-rayed, Harry felt rather uneasy being surveyed by those bright blue eyes.
"This is indeed disturbing. And he matches no description of any known Death Eater?" Dumbledore asked.
"None that's on record. Ron is questioning him right now but I don't know how much reliable information we can get out of him." Harry said.
"This is highly unusual. If there was indeed a Dementor or Lethifold present, someone would have certainly noticed it, yet it remained unmissed. And Ms. Granger says that she observed only a green light?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes. Why, Professor? Do you think something else is going in?" Harry said.
"I cannot be certain, Harry. You told me that the man did not respond to you, even when you forced his head back and held him at wandpoint?" he asked, to which Harry nodded.
Dumbledore took a deep breath and started explaining:
"A Memory Charm's purpose is to cause the target to forget a particular memory. But the memory is not destroyed; you see, the wizard performing the charm would cast a small sheet of magic, preventing the target from being able to access this memory. But it is the nature of magic to grow more powerful as time passes. The longer the charm holds, the stronger the magical barrier becomes. If the charm was particularly powerful, and if enough time passes, it would be possible for the barrier to start repressing other memories. I think it's likely that he may have been placed under a Memory Charm some time back. For all we know, he could have been trying to protect the Muggle family from whatever Dark creature attacked them, but, having forgotten the Patronus Charm, could cast the only other spell he hoped would repel the creature that attacked him: the Killing Curse. I suppose that in his panic and confusion, he hit the Muggle family he was trying to defend. It seems to me the most rational explanation, at least."
"But the Dark Mark, Professor," Harry said. "Even within Voldemort's inner circle, only a few knew how to conjure it. And this man, who has no memory kills a Muggle family and conjures the Dark Mark?"
"You forget, Harry," Dumbledore said, "The Dark Mark was cast before the murders - Voldemort was very careful to always cast it afterwards. I do not believe that this was the work of an active Death Eater. No, I think something much more sinister is at work here. Yet what troubles me even more than a former ally of Voldemort in our midst is this stranger's identity. Few people possess the disposition to cast the Killing Curse, and even fewer dare to use it. From what Ms. Granger says about the wand's usage, Harry, I would advise you to go through a list of all of Voldemort's supporters from his first rise to power."
Just then, the fire turned emerald and Hermione's face appeared in the flames.
"Harry, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but you need to come immediately. We've gotten a rather... strange development on who the man is." she said.
Harry immediately grabbed Floo powder before saying a hasty goodbye to Dumbledore's portrait. When he came out of the Floo Network, he saw Hermione and Ron looking at him anxiously.
"What happened?" he asked.
"The wand report came back." Ron said simply.
"And...?" Harry asked rather impatiently.
"I know this is going to be hard for you to believe Harry, but we've even had Ollivander come in and check," Hermione said, taking a deep breath. "The wand was purchased nearly four decades ago at Ollivander. He says he can't believe it, but the records confirm it. The purchase was made with the Black family's Gringotts account. That wand belongs to Regulus Black."