I had to know who brutalized my wife and daughters.
I had no veritaserum. I had no way making it even if I had enough of the expensive ingredients for creating ten cauldrons full of it. I was often told by professor Slughorn that I had no skill in potions during the five years I was forced to sit in his classroom.
I was going to have to get the information the hard way.
-
I glanced down at my pocket watch. Close enough.
I was walking through Knockturn Alley again. This time I was wearing a black cloak with no hood. A hood would make me suspicious and I could not be stopped. I didn't care if I was seen. I had no use for anonymity I wanted THEM to know I was onto them.
That I was looking for THEM.
I had no family to think of.
No career to protect.
No fear of repercussions.
No one to stop me.
I had used three simple charms. All of them were learned in the third year of Hogwarts.
The animation charm: a charm that animates inanimate objects and binds them to the spell-caster's control.
I had used it on mops and brooms in my first job out of Hogwarts. Keeping the Honeydukes candy factory clean was not the job of the house elf confectioners, they had other duties.
The timed engorgement charm: enlarges the size of something at a time set by the spell-caster.
Used commonly in life for obvious and extensive reasons.
The timed reduction charm: reduces the size of an object until a time set by the spell-caster.
They were all very simple and very easy to reverse.
They were considered harmless to all wizards.
Harmless in the hands of the sane.
-
I walked to the front door of the "Thirsty Dragon" and set a small muggle crayon box on the top step. I opened the lid and tipped the box over facing the crack at the bottom of the door.
I looked at my watch again.
"Five minutes" I said to no one.
I backed away and disapperated away.
I felt a momentary and shallow feeling of accomplishment.
I would return soon.
-
Harry Dumars was not a nice man. He owned the Thirsty Dragon and worked as a bartender in the toughest magical place in London. A few drunk wizards had tried to shake him down for protection money before, there wasn't anything left of them but little pieces that had to be scrubbed off the walls.
He had a wife, she worked behind the bar as a whore. He didn't abide by free-loaders, his previous wives had to earn their keep too. It didn't matter if they wanted to work or not and he didn't know, you don't have a chance to speak your opinion when under the imperious.
He was wiping a glass clean with a dirty rag facing the wall behind the bar, eyes closed and imaging what he would do to his new wife tonight after the bar closed when he noticed something strange.
His rowdy bar was silent. Eyes snapping open, drawing his wand and starting to turn around, he was too slow. he felt a searing pain in his shoulders and screamed as he dropped his wand from numb fingers. He fell to his knees, the jerk to his shoulders bringing a new wave of pain into into him. He had faced the cruciatus before, this was nothing compared to it, but, still very painful.
Looking over his shoulder he tried to look behind himself. He was going into shock from the pain. In his shoulders were what looked like sewing needles for sewing giant's clothes. His eyes watered and his breath hitched in his throat.
Dozens of identical green men stood around his bar. They were short, maybe a meter and a half tall. Their skin and clothes were strange. Their skin shined in the lamp light, as did their muggle-like clothes.
Around his bar were the dead bodies of his and his wifes costumers. They all had needles through their heads.
"Crack"
He heard someone apperate into being behind him.
"Wha- wha what do you want?" he stuttered in pained breaths.
"Answers" he heard a deep scratchy voice say behind him.
"I don't know anything!" He yelled.
"I haven't asked anything yet"
He heard a hissing snapping sound behind him and smelled the faint scent of rain.
He wondered what that sound was.
He felt an excruciating pain in the side of his neck and everything went black.