February 4, 2004

1:11 PM

Anchorage, Alaska

Finally, someone who knew something about Harry, Cho thought to herself. She had been searching for any information on the Man who Live for nearly two weeks and she had found nothing. However, this man seemed to know something. Or at least, he said he did.

"When did you see him last?" Cho asked.

The man in front of her was an American Auror by the name of Joe Oxley. Oxley was an enormous man with long blonde hair that he slicked back with copious amounts of hair gel. Oxley apparently had been one of the best Aurors in the States until an accident a few years back. Now, he was missing half of his right foot and was forced to walk with a cane. He took the job in Alaska for three years so that he could be eligible for full retirement.

"I saw Potter two months ago. I called him in to talk about an outpouring of werewolf attacks in Siberia. The Minister seems to think that they are going to cross the Strait and come through Alaska to get to Canada. Apparently, the Canucks caused a serious beef with the Russian 'Wolves."

"What would Harry have to do with that?" Cho asked again.

"Even with his relatively brief experience in England, everyone knows that Harry Potter is one of the best defense strategists around. We needed his help designing a plan to stop the 'wolves from coming through."

"He agreed."

"Reluctantly, yes."

"Where did he come from?"

Oxley looked at her like she had asked him a question in a foreign language.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, he has to live somewhere. Where?"

"I have no idea."

"How do you get in touch with him?" Cho asked, pressing harder.

"Owl, of course. How else?" Oxley replied with a chuckle.

"But you don't know where the owl goes?"

"No." Oxley responded nervously.

"When he comes to town, where do you meet him?"

Oxley pulled a pipe out his desk. Slowly, he lit it and then stuck it into his mouth. The tobacco smelled sweet, like it had been treated with sugar or cinnamon. Oxley took a deep breath before he responded.

"I buy him a beer at The Witches' Brew."

"The Witches' Brew? Seriously?" Cho asked in surprise.

"It's a good little bar downtown, when you can get there in the cold. Hell, even Apparating in there seems difficult in this cold. Anyway, he comes in, I rent out a room and buy him a beer. We talk, he listens, gives his advice and then leaves."

"How does he get home?"

"Excuse me?"

"How. Does. He. Get. HOME?" Cho growled at the man.

"All I see him do is walk down the street. Other than that, I don't know how."

Cho stood from her seat across from Oxley and made her way to the door. She opened the door and then turned back to the man.

"Set up a meeting with Harry for tomorrow afternoon. I'll follow him out of here."

"I'll do my best."

Their conversation over, Cho walked out of the small office and into the frigid Alaskan winter air. As she walked her way back across the street to the motel she was staying in, she thought about how she got here.

January 19, 2004

3:13 AM

New York, NY

Cho had just laid down to go to bed when an owl landed in her window. She walked to the window in her bedroom and retrieved the letter. Letter in hand, she walked down the hall to her office. Her one steadfast rule was that she never worked in her bedroom. Once she was seated at her desk, she opened the letter. She noticed two distinctly different handwriting lined the paper. One was the letter that had been written. The other was a note written from the American Minister to her on the top of the letter.

Cho,

I just received the following message from Hermione Granger. I'm sorry to wake you but I thought you would rather have this now then wait until morning. I hope you find him quickly.

Sorry,

Minister Mitchell

Cho took the Minister's note in stride as she proceeded to read Hermione's letter.

Cho,

I have no idea what time this letter will reach you. However, once you get it, please move with the quickest haste possible. We have captured The Frenchman. However, he refuses to speak with our agents or anyone else. He has strongly insinuated that he is not in charge of the missions that he has been apart of and that someone else is running their killing spree.

He has said that he would speak to one man. Unfortunately, that one man is Harry Potter. As you are aware, Harry has been missing for nearly four years. However, our last sighting of him was in the United States and we believe that he is still there.

Therefore, your orders have changed. Under Minister Shacklebolt's orders, we are naming your assistant to act in your place while you find Harry. Do whatever you can within the law to bring him home.

Act quickly,

Hermione Granger, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement

Cho was glad she was sitting down when she read the letter. She's not sure that she would have remained standing for much longer anyway. Cho had just been placed in charge of the discovery of the location of Harry Potter.

Personally, Cho didn't think that it is possible. Harry was one of the most talented wizards in the world when it came to defense and stealth. If Harry didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be found. However, the only saving grace that Cho could see was that they weren't in England. There, Cho could see that Harry would know that everyone would recognize him and he would be nearly silent and invisible. In the United States, Harry may have been famous, but not overly so.

Plus, any mentions of him in the American tabloids would be placed directly next to rumors that Albus Dumbledore, Lord Voldemort and Merlin had all come back from the dead. Not exactly the most reputable sources.

Cho walked back down the long hallway to her bedroom where she hopped into bed. She set her alarm for 7:00 AM, a hour later than she would normally get up. Since she wasn't going into the Ministry, she didn't seem to think that it would be a problem.

January 19, 2004

10:11 AM

After waking up, Cho took a quick shower and then walked down the street to the nearest Starbucks for a coffee. Cho lived in downtown Manhattan. While she didn't necessarily like the constant Muggle environment, no one seemed to notice the occasion magical thing. It made for a good place to hide when she wasn't living in her appointed housing as Ambassador to the American Ministry.

After making the quick trip to get her coffee, Cho came back to her desk and began writing. Having been in the US for quite some time, Cho had become intricately acquainted with the American system. 50 States, each with a representative and an Auror Office. So, she sat down at her desk and wrote a letter to every representative and Auror Captain in each state. She would have to wait a while for most of the letters to return. However, simply getting up and starting to search was completely out of the question. The United States was incredibly large, much larger than England. It would take years of searching if she didn't have some information to begin with.

Otherwise, she really was looking for a pin in a straw. Or whatever the Muggle saying was.

Cho went to the closest closet and pulled out an old trunk that she had brought with her from London. She dragged it out into the living room and opened it. Inside were a number of keepsakes from her years in school and just after. The first thing she pulled out was an old Prophet. The headline on the front page read The Chosen One defeats He Who Must Not Be Named!

On the front of the paper were two pictures of the Golden Trio: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. The first was a picture of them from what looked to be their first year at Hogwarts. They were young with bright eyes. None of them knew the horrors that they were certain to face over the next few years. The picture next to it was a picture of them just hours after Lord Voldemort's body had been burned in the Black Lake. They stood in the same order and while Harry and Ron now towered over Hermione, they looked closer than every.

However, Cho noticed something now that she hadn't seen the day she had purchased this paper. While the eyes of Ron and Hermione had remained similar, albeit weighed down by the gravity of the events of that day, Harry's had changed. The difference was astonishing. While the eleven-year old Harry had a cheerful smile that was reflected in his eyes, seventeen-year old Harry had the same smile, but it stopped just short of his eyes. He looked happy but Cho could tell that there was something there that was affecting him.

Of course there was something affecting him. Harry's tendency to blame everything on himself would have been on overdrive that day. Hundreds died in the defense of Hogwarts on that day and Harry was almost assuredly going to blame himself for every single one of them.

Who knew that a year later, everyone else would blame him too.

10:00 PM

By ten, Cho had received a host of letters. However, only four held good information. Sighting of Harry had been reported in California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. While none of them reported dates, Cho had an idea that Harry had to be moving north and away from the rest of the world.

Instantly, Cho sat down and began to write Ron Weasley, the Auror in charge of the investigation in London.

Ron,

After working hard all day trying to find something that would help, I may have found it. The United States is a strange nation. Each of their 50 states has a representative that I can contact at any time. Well, when Hermione sent me her orders to look for Harry, I instantly got to work contacting them to see what they've heard. I got a lot of no's but I did manage to get four replies that may help. The representatives from California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska have all had a large number of rumored Harry Potter sightings. While Harry isn't nearly as famous here as he is at home, he's still a recognizable face. The number of sightings can't be a coincidence. If you need anything else from me, just let me know.

Cho

When she saw that the letter was satisfactorily explanatory without being overly detailed, she threw it in the Floo Fire that they had established earlier in the day. Hopefully, this mean that Ron would get it quickly. She knew that it would be very late in London but with the whole nation on full alert, Cho wouldn't have been surprised to learn that he was still in his office working.

Sure enough, she got a letter back within moments.

Cho,

I need a list of when and where Harry was sighted. Also, if he stayed the night anywhere, I need to know. I'm going to go check with Minister Shacklebolt and Minister-in-waiting Weasley and see what they think we should do moving forward. As it is, I'm giving you orders to make your way to Los Angeles.

In the future, these sightings would have been nice to know when they happened.

Thanks, Ron

"Well hopefully you won't need to know about these sightings." she said softly to herself. "Hopefully, I find him."

Once she finished reading the letter, she stood up and walked to her bedroom. She need to pack for MUCH warmer weather.

February 1, 2004

12:13 PM

Anchorage, AK

Cho sincerely hoped that state number four wasn't like the other three.

California had been her first stop. She had followed Ron's orders and gone to Los Angeles. There, she had met with one of the representatives of the state, a woman in her late seventies by the name of Gertrude Lighty. She was a strong, strict looking woman who chillingly reminded Cho of Minerva McGonagall, her old Transfiguration Professor.

While Lighty had many reports on sightings of Harry, she had nothing in particular. No individual sightings with no specific dates or locations. The only thing that she knew was that there had been three or four people in the city of Fresno that had seen Harry. After spending nearly two hours meeting with the woman (who gave a distinct vibe that she thought she had better things to be doing), Cho left the meeting feeling very discouraged about the prospects of finding Harry.

Deciding that she would return to Fresno if the other states didn't show up anything, Cho moved north to Portland. There, she meet with a regional Auror Office director, Robert Ryan. Ryan, while far more organized than Lighty had been, was of no more assistance. They knew that the British Ministry had been on the lookout for Harry Potter and therefore they kept a catalog of sightings of the ubiquitous wizard. However, none of the sightings were ever followed up on and ultimately nothing had been done about them.

Feeling more disheartened than ever, Cho Apparated to Spokane, WA. Once she was there, Cho spent two days being shuttled around the Washington branch of the Ministry. Apparently, numerous people had been in charge of keeping track of Harry Potter sightings. However, none of them had any good information. Therefore, Cho spent the night in Spokane drinking the night away.

This morning and twenty minutes ago, Cho, hangover and all, took the Floo to Anchorage. She landed in the Alaskan Ministry Office and instantly someone was there to greet her.

"Good morning, Miss Chang. We are pleased to have you here." a young woman said with a bright smile. She was the same height as Cho with bright blue eyes and a rather fair complection. Although Cho imagined that with as cold as it was outside, everyone would probably have a fair complexion.

"Good morning. I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name." Cho said as she greeted the bright woman with a handshake.

"Jillian Handler." she said warmly. "I am the aide to Mr. Combs."

Mr. Combs or DeShaun Combs as his mother named him was a notorious representative in the American system. He was born and raised in River City, Iowa, child of a mother born and raised in Detroit and a father from Watts. Needless to say, Mr. Combs stuck out like a sore thumb. He was loud, boisterous, talked in more slang than a teenage girl and was one of the most remarkable lawmakers in the United States.

Combs had moved to Alaska when he was 18 to join a team of Aurors on a werwolve hunt in 1980. He had never moved home. Four years later, he was elected to represent his state in the Wizard's Court, a magical version of the United States Senate.

"Good." Cho said with a smile. "May I see Mr. Combs?"

"Right this way." she replied before turning and hurriedly leading Cho away.

Cho followed Jillian through a maze of desks and office until she finally turned down a long hallway with a single door at the end. Reaching the end, she pulled the door open and motioned for Cho to go in.

Seated at his desk was DeShaun Combs. He was an incredibly tall man with the darkest skin she had ever seen. He had a slight belly that didn't seem to go with the rest of his frame, which seemed that it had once housed an incredibly athletic man.

"Sit, Miss Chang." he said in a surprisingly soft voice.

"Thank you." Cho said as she sat while Jillian closed the door behind them.

"Now, I understand that you are here to locate Mr. Harry Potter, is that right?" he asked her, again with great gentility.

"Yes." Cho replied shortly, unable to hide her confusion.

DeShaun must have seen it because he instantly chuckled.

"Miss Chang, my mother and father would be so upset if they heard me on the wireless talking like this. I keep up with appearances so that they feel like I never forgot them. In truth, I didn't. I simply don't talk like them anymore."

Talk about not judging a book by its cover. Cho thought to herself. Although I am half Scottish-half Chinese, I imagine no one expects what comes out of my mouth either.

"It's so surprising." Cho admitted.

"I can understand that." DeShaun answered. "Now, Mr. Potter?"

"Yes. Minister Weasley needs Harry to talk to a captured terrorist. He will only talk to Harry and we have reason to believe that he wasn't acting alone."

"Well, Miss Chang, you're in luck."

"Really? How?"

"We have an Auror here in Anchorage who has spoken to Harry on a few occasions."

The look on Cho's face had to be one of complete and udder shock. No one in two years had been known to speak of Harry Potter or to Harry Potter. Especially not someone in the magical world. Now, she had someone saying that not only has he spoken to Harry, he can remember speaking to Harry!

"Who? When? Where? Why?"

"How?" DeShaun interjected with a smile. "Joe Oxley is the man's name. He's the top Auror in the area. It's probably due to the fact that we only have three Aurors in all of Alaska but he is the top Auror."

"How did he get to Harry?"

"During the winter, the sun goes down for a month and never comes up. It's the worst month out of the year. Here, things aren't so bad. Up north though where it can be completely dark for up to 21 hours a day? Vampires love it up there. The tribes that live closer to civilization don't have too many problems when it comes to alternative food sources. Up there, they kill the first thing they came across. One day about a year ago, a pack of starving vampires attacked a small village in the tundra. We got word but we knew that we would never make it in time."

"Why not?"

"Trying to find all of these tiny tribal towns is nearly impossible, even with the ability to Apparate. Anyway, we figured we would find a bloodbath. Instead, only two people were bitten and neither of the bites were deep enough to contract the virus. We found out from eyewitnesses that Harry Potter had saved them and was staying in the inn. Oxley went to him to thank him and asked him whether he would be staying in the area. When Harry said yes, Ox asked him if he could ask for his help occasionally. Harry reluctantly agreed and then walked out of the bar."

She couldn't believe it. She was really going to find him.

"Well, where is he?"

"Who? Harry? We have no idea."

"Not Harry." Cho replied. "Mr. Oxley."

"Oh, he's out on a mission. He won't be back for two days."

Of course, the light at the end of the tunnel just got a little farther away.

February 5, 2004

3:33 PM

The Witches' Brew

Finally, after two days of waiting, a meeting with Joe Oxley and a whole day of nervously waiting again, the point where she finally would get to trail Harry was here. Cho was situated in the room next to Oxley's and she had bought a whole supply of George Weasley's Extendable Ears from his Instant Delivery Catalog. She would have to remember to thank him when she got back. Now, the whole bar could be heard from Cho's room.

Finally, she heard the door in the room next to her open slowly. Next, she heard Oxley get up and greet him.

"That you for coming on such short notice, Mr. Potter." Oxley said warmly.

"It's fine." she heard Harry reply. It was amazing how different and yet how similar his voice sounded. It didn't have the life it had had at one point, but it was definitely the same Harry that she remembered.

"Anyway, I figured we'll get to work." Oxley said as she heard two people sit down. "Minister Mitchell wants to increase our defense at the sea ports. He is sincerely worried about the 'wolves."

Cho heard Harry sigh before standing up.

"Mr. Oxley, this is a waste of my goddamn time. Not only is the population of werewolves in Russia a miniscule number, nothing that you do at the ports would help. They're werewolves, they are only obviously dangerous for six hours every month! How do you plan on stopping that?"

Suddenly, the door opened and slammed in an instant. Cho quickly stood up and ran to the door. Sure enough, she saw the familiar outline of the Boy Who Lived rushing down the stairs. Not bothering to wait for Oxley, she rushed down the stairs and into the street. She knew that she wasn't an Auror and she wasn't trained for anything like this and she probably wasn't even authorized to make contact with him, but she needed to follow.

Once Harry was out on the street, he moved quickly. He wasn't difficult to follow. In the near white-out conditions of winter in Anchorage, the man in the black cloak was obvious. However, the woman following him in the white winter coat was nearly invisible.

For nearly thirty minutes, Cho trailed behind Harry as he weaved in and out of small alleys and back roads. Cho wondered whether Harry knew that she was following him or whether this was a path that he typically followed.

Suddenly, just as Cho began to wonder whether or not Harry was walking all the way home, he ducked into a small restaurant. Cho waited for a couple minutes before following his lead and entering the building. Cho quickly walked up the hostess.

"Excuse me, my husband just came in here? He was probably wearing glasses with jet black hair and a long black overcoat."

"He went upstairs to private room number 4." the hostess said pointing the stairs behind her.

"Thanks." Cho said before bolting up the stairs. Once she was at the top, she pulled out her wand and made her way to the forth door. She heard Harry inside yell something "Barrow!" before a loud rush came out, obviously the result of Floo Powder.

Cho rushed inside and saw exactly what she expected: a long room with a fireplace at the end. This building was used solely for Floo Powder movement. A facility like this would make Harry very difficult to track.

Cho was examining the fireplace for more Floo Powder when she heard a voice.

"Hello, Cho."