A/N: The first part of this chapter takes place at the same time as the end of the previous chapter. You'll know when time has passed beyond the end of Chapter XIV.
March 31
1:32 PM
Ministry of Magic
Having left Harry and Ron to their research just a few moments ago, Cho and Hermione Apparated together to the Atrium at the Ministry. While Harry was gone, Cho was to act in his place, working with Hermione to try to find The Jester within the country. The pair of them had interviews set up with various Ministry members for the next several days and there were even rumors that they were going to be forced to travel to Ireland to meet with a married couple who swore up and down that they had seen The Jester recently. However, they would not be working together today. Hermione had several meetings for the rest of the afternoon and Cho knew that there was no way that she was going to be finished at a decent hour.
As Cho bid farewell to Hermione and took a seat behind the desk in her own office down the hall from Hermione and Harry's, Cho noticed a letter on her desk. Obviously it was not a Ministry memo as it did not seem to have been folded into a paper airplane. Instead, it was a full envelope of parchment of the highest quality. It even had a bit of a scent on it, a hint of perfume. It was strange. That was something that a Muggle usually did. Paper done in this style was not the typical wizarding letter.
Nevertheless, she opened the envelope warily. However, the moment she opened it, she knew that her worries had been unfounded. She quickly took the letter out and placed it on the desk in front of her, reading quickly.
Cho,
I've heard that you've made your way back into the country. About damn time, I'd say! Anyway, Blaise is at work all day and so I don't have much to do with my time. I would really enjoy seeing you after going nearly two years without seeing one of my closest friends!
We really do have tons of catching up to do. So, how does lunch at the house sound? Three o'clock? I do hope you can make it.
I wait your reply.
Love,
Mary Zabini
While Cho may have been putting the letter away nicely on the outside, internally she was laughing. Mary Zabini? Obviously, she had adjusted her name to try and get some of the stink off of her that still plagued her after their sixth year. After their time at Hogwarts, Marietta Edgecombe had nearly disappeared off the face of the earth. Actually, it was precisely her face that caused it. After ratting out Dumbledore's Army, she had been placed under a terribly scarring hex that gave her near permanent welts and acne in the shape of the word "SNEAK" across her face.
Two years of desperate searching had finally found her a Healer in Argentina who had given her a lotion that she was to rub on her face four times a day. Unfortunately for her, it didn't prevent the marks from showing up. Instead, it completely rearranged her face like a permanent glamour charm. The hexes were gone as long as she applied the lotion. However, because of this, no one recognized her. Even her family had a difficult time being around her and so when they came around, she intentionally did not apply the lotion, which forced her to spend the next week indoors before the lotion would take hold again.
However, for as long as she applied it, she could be someone totally different. In fact, she was so different that she was able to somehow wrangle Blaise Zabini into marrying her. How she managed it, Cho still wasn't sure to this day. But, what she did know is that Blaise cared for her about as much as he cared for his broom and he wasn't a particularly avid flyer.
So, Marietta Edgecombe became Mary Edgecombe and then Mary Zabini, completely changing her face. Now, no one had to know that Marietta Edgecombe was actually the wife of one of the most conservative members of the Ministry of Magic. Not that his record affected her any. He had been quite wealthy when they had married and now Marietta, "Mary" Cho reminded herself, simply stayed at home, living the luxurious life of a wealthy housewife with elves to take care of her every whim.
Cho didn't particularly care to see Mary but as she was unlikely to get much work done today without Harry or Hermione to work with, Cho decided to close up shop for the day and accept Mary's invitation. Quickly, she pulled out a quill and a very normal piece of parchment and scribbled a note confirming their date before handing it to her owl in the corner.
"Take this to Mary, alright, Hercules?" Cho asked the giant owl as she tied her letter on his foot. Hercules gave a stiff hoot before taking off and flying out the Owl exit at the top of the building.
Cho worked on some paperwork for the next hour, never really paying much attention to what was in front of her and instead thinking of Harry and Ron and the risk they were taking in leaving the country again. The last time Harry had left, The Frenchman had been killed in the middle of his trial. Cho just hoped that something like that didn't happen again.
At a quarter to 3, Cho stood up and collected her things before stepping out of her office, locking it with a wave of her wand, and walking back towards the Atrium. Thankfully, Mary's house was attached to the Floo Network and so Cho wouldn't have to leave the Anti-Apparation wards that surrounded the Ministry nowadays. Unfortunately, she didn't get that far on her first attempt. As she stepped into the Atrium, she was suddenly confronted by Roger Davies.
"Cho? How are you?" he said, looking excited and sounding bored.
"I'm good, Roger. How are you?" Cho replied, despite Roger's strangeness.
"Fine, I suppose. I hear you've given up your job in the States." Roger answered as she nodded. "That's too bad. You were doing a good job."
"Thanks. Where are you working?" Cho asked, not exactly certain why she was asking.
"I'm the new Assistant Head of the International Magical Office of Law. I started yesterday."
"That's fantastic. I'm certain you'll do great."
"Thanks." Roger said softly before leaning in towards her. "I've been meaning to talk to you. If you're done being Potter's lackey, we could really use a mind like yours in my office."
"In what way am I Harry's lackey?" Cho asked in anger.
"I heard that Potter and Weasley are out of the country again, searching for the Jester. Meanwhile, you're here, taking care of Potter's business and answering to Weasley and Granger."
"She's a Weasley too, you know?" Cho corrected him harshly.
"It doesn't matter. You were the most prestigious Ambassador for us in the world and now, well now you're nothing more than Potter's secretary."
So this was what the Ministry-at-large thought of her now that she had come back to England. They all thought that, with her massive crush on Harry from school being common knowledge, she had accepted just to work for him and refuse to move her own career up. The whole of the Ministry thought that she had simply accepted being Harry's assistant.
"Davies, you do realize that I'm the Goodwill Ambassador to the entire Wizarding World, right? You understand that I'm working with Harry on this but once this case is over, we will separate ourselves and work on different things. The only people who I report to are the Weasleys. If you seriously think that I am Harry's slave, then you have another thing coming. Who knows? Maybe, I'll apply for the Head of the International Magical Office of Law once Fitzgerald retires in the next few years."
"I find that highly unlikely." Roger replied stiffly. "First, Fitzgerald will more than likely work until he dies. Secondly, why do you think they named someone as the Assistant Head of the department for the first time? Once he's gone, I'll take over and it's as simple as that."
"Not if the former Ambassador to the United States and Goodwill Ambassador puts her name in the ring. Plus, they still look at NEWT scores, Davies. If I remember correctly, your's were not that fantastic."
"I've worked passed them."
"I'm certain you have." Cho said coolly before stepping around him and making her way to the closet fireplace. She looked over her shoulder for just a moment to see Roger still standing where she had left him, a small look of fury on his face. Cho was certain that no one had spoken to him like that for quite some time.
When she reached her selected fireplace, she grabbed a handful of the Floo Powder next to the fireplace and threw it in. Once she saw that it had turned the satisfactory green color that was needed, she stepped in and shouted her destination.
"Zabini Manor!"
Quickly, she felt the bottom of the fireplace fall out and seconds later, she came stumbling out of the fireplace at a very dark and elegant dining room within Zabini Manor. The house of decorated like a Slytherin, maybe even Salazar Slytherin himself, had done it. Since it had been in the Zabini family for centuries, she suspected that the dark character of the family had influenced it over time.
"Cho Chang, is that you?"
Cho turned in place to see Mary standing in the doorway. Cho prided herself on being able to see straight through her disguise and she found that despite having been gone for several years, she could still tell. After all, her eyes hadn't changed a bit.
"Mary, how are you?" Cho said happily, walking the length of the room to embrace her oldest friend.
"I'm doing quite well. How are you? Working for Potter, I hear?" Mary said, a hint of disgust creeping into her voice.
"I'm working with him, Mary. There is a difference."
"I'm certain there is." Mary said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Either way, I don't know how you can stand it."
"I know you don't care for him, Mary, but he's a good man. Plus, he didn't know about the hex that Hermione had put on that paper."
"Hermione?" Mary asked mockingly. "It's Hermione now, is it? For the longest time, it was Granger or Weasley or that awful girl. Now it's Hermione? You've gone soft, Cho."
Cho could see that Mary had become what Cho had always feared for her: a gossiping monster who held grudges and was probably using the money she had now to influence everything she could. More than likely, Hermione had fought against Mary and Blaise and that, coupled with the humiliation she suffered during her sixth year, had led to a grudge over everyone that supported Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. In fact, Mary was one of the few people who didn't return to fight for Hogwarts that day. Even after the fact, she stressed that while she was glad that You-Know-Who was gone, she had wished that Harry had been taken with him.
Little did they all know, and they found out later when Harry, desperate for money had authorized a biography on his life, that he had been closer to death than any person had ever been before.
"Mary, let's talk about something different. I know that we see things differently and that we have for some time. I didn't come here to fight with you."
"That's fine with me." Mary said dismissively before turning and walking down the hallway. "Besides, Tracey and Daphne are waiting in the other room."
"Who?" Cho asked in confusion.
"Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass. Daphne married Theodore Nott last year. Theo and Blaise are best friends. So, I see a lot of Daphne. As a result, I have to deal with Tracey but that's alright."
"Why do you have to deal with either of them?"
"It's just how things work, Cho. I'm a Pureblood, Blaise is a Pureblood, Theo and Daphne are Purebloods. We have to stick together." Mary said pointedly. "Plus, they really aren't bad company when you have nothing to do all day."
"What about Tracey?"
"We don't need to talk about that." Mary replied as they stepped into the dining room.
Cho had to prevent a snicker at that comment as they entered the room where two women their age were already seated and talking rather heatedly.
"Tracey, I simply cannot believe that I'm hearing this again." the thin blonde, Daphne Greengrass-Nott, said as she rolled her eyes. "He's no hero. The courts proved it."
"The courts?" Tracey Davis, a short brunette with a set of piercing blue eyes, replied. "The courts run by Amos Diggory, you mean? He nearly bankrupted his entire family to ensure that he ended up guilty for it. He was only pissed off that he couldn't get him in a criminal trial."
"Why must we talk about this every time you two come over?" Mary said as she took her seat next to Daphne. "I believe you all know Cho Chang."
"As yes, Cho Chang, the woman who went to the end of the earth to bring back Harry Potter." Daphne said snidely.
"Can we please drop the Potter subject?" Mary asked hurriedly. Cho had a sneaking suspicion that Daphne and Mary talked about this subject often and they were used to winning it where only Tracey seemed interested in defending Harry.
"Certainly." Daphne answered. "So how is it being back home?" Her new tone almost scared Cho with how much different it was from the attacking one she had used moments ago.
"It's fine. I certainly missed it." Cho replied. "I enjoy being back at our Ministry. What work are you two in?"
"I work for the Department of Magical Education." Tracey replied. "I'm one of the five or six evaluators in the Department. I actually work at Hogwarts and do monthly reviews of a handful of professors at school."
"That sounds fantastic." Cho said with a smile before dangerously turning towards Daphne. "And what do you do?"
The first reply that Cho got was a hearty laugh that she could tell came directly from Daphne's belly. A true and full laugh.
"Oh, I am sorry for that." she replied as she finished laughing seconds later. "But that is a funny question. I am the financial director of the Greengrass Foundation."
"What does that entail?"
"Sitting at home and watching my money multiply." Daphne replied coldly. "My family has spent the last few centuries making smart investments in the world Wizarding market. As a result, I can choose what to spend my time doing. I certainly don't need to make any money."
"Excellent." Cho replied, a foul taste in her mouth. "That's wonderful for you."
"That it is." Daphne replied as several house elves invaded the room, bringing plates full of delicious looking food with them.
For the rest of the lunch, the topics of Harry Potter, money and work left and it was simply left to the gossip of whether Hermione and Ron Weasley were finally going to get that divorce that they had obviously been begging for for almost a full year now.
As much as she hated the conversation, there was one glimmer of hope: Tracey Davis. Despite having been a Slytherin in school, she appeared to be smart and interested only in what the truth was unlike Mary, who sounded every bit the Slytherin that Cho was convinced she should have been, and Daphne, who Cho left wondering if the fair-skinned woman had ever ordered the death of someone. Both of them suspected they knew what the truth was and didn't seek to do any real thinking about it.
Finally, at nearly 4:30, Cho stood up and excused herself, telling herself that she would never attend another one of these lunches. However, she also told herself that it was her intention to seek out Tracey Davis and get her away from people who she had obviously outgrown.
Taking the Floo back to Potter Manor, she quickly ran up to her room where she showered and changed into some much more comfortable attire. Once she was done, she headed back down to the sitting room furthest from the front door. It was long and nearly empty as Harry had yet to full furnish it. However, it did have an incredibly large sofa, a giant rug and one coffee table. Once she got to the table, she sat down and opened up some files on the Jester and laid them out in front of her.
Unfortunately, her mind prevented her from looking at them for any longer than a few minutes. Every time that she thought that she was getting ready to get down to work, her thoughts began to drift. First, they drifted to Harry. From the start of her fifth year, she had liked him and he knew that she had liked her but he was simply too shy to do anything about that. Then, there was the whole issue with Marietta. Her staunch refusal to believe that her friend had done anything other defend her family led to Harry hating her. It was nearly two years, during the Battle of Hogwarts, before they truly spoke again. By then, Cho had realized just how wrong she had been about Harry and how much Marietta's betrayal of the DA and then Cho's defense of her meant to Harry.
Unfortunately, by the time she realized her mistake, it was too late. During that time, Harry had obviously fallen for Ginny Weasley and Cho saw that her chance to make things work between the two of them was gone. Once she realized this, she nearly gave up on having a love life, burying herself in her work and largely ignoring the world. Two days after the funeral for Albus Dumbledore, she had started her career at the Ministry, specializing in international relations. It was her thought that she wanted to get away from London, England and anything that reminded her of the mistake that she had made with her and Harry Potter.
However, her career was cut short when You-Know-Who took control of the Ministry. Cho had been on her way to work when her boss had sent her an Owl, begging her to run. She didn't even think twice. She took off and hid in her family's large estate in Scotland while her parent's chose to flee the country entirely. Only once in the whole year did she get any trouble from You-Know-Who's government and that was simply because they thought that Harry, who everyone knew had once dated Cho Chang, could have been hiding in her home. After allowing the Death Eaters to search her home, and proving to them that he was not there, they left and she didn't hear from anyone for quite some time. She spent her time working on her own spell casting and establishing more wards around her family home. For nearly a year, she only received the occasional letter and only saw her family once.
Then, May 2nd came.
On that day, late in the evening, she went into her old bedroom to see her dresser had caught fire. Instantly putting it out, she looked around to see what the cause could have been. Suddenly, she noticed something shiny on the floor. Picking it up, she instantly recognized it as her old DA coin and it was warm, obviously it had started the fire. She had kept in her drawer as a memento of her time in the DA and the time she had spent with Harry. Looking at it closer, she noticed that the normally standard serial numbers had changed.
0954365741 had turned into: HogsHeadNow
Hog's Head. Now. Instantly, Cho turned and Apparated into the main room of the Hog's Head. The rest, as they say, was history. Once the battle and the memorials were over, everyone had to go back to work. Seeing Harry and Ginny happy together did terrible things to Cho's heart. So, rather than stick around, she fled. She begged her way into the Department of International Magical Cooperation and became an Ambassador to the Korean Peninsula. She worked there for two years before spending two years in France, living with her family who spent more than half the year now.
Then, in 2002, news came that Harry Potter had been spotted in the United States.
One month later, the position for Ambassador to the United States of America. Needless to say, Cho was the first person in line to apply for that job. Cho slowly realized that some of what Roger and Daphne had said was right. The only reason that Cho was really interested in the US job was Harry. She made it her mission to find as much information on him as she could. About one year in, she realized that she didn't even care whether he was with her. She just didn't think that, after all he had done for the world, he should be alone.
As Cho continued thinking about all of this, she didn't realize that she was slowly absorbing the warmth of the large fireplace in front of her and within only a few minutes, she was asleep in front of the fire.
6:00 PM
Potter Manor
"Cho!"
Cho thought she could hear someone shouting her name. But that couldn't be right. Harry wasn't due to be back for another day or so. Just as she put her head back down, she heard it again. This time, it was much louder and it was accompanied by someone grabbing her shoulders and shaking her.
"Cho!" the voice said as it shook Cho out of her slumber.
Cho, finally waking up, looked up to see Hermione standing over her, a crazed look in her eye.
"Hermione?" Cho asked in confusion. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Come on, you need to get up." Hermione said in a hurry. "We've got to get moving!"
Slowly, Cho stood up, suddenly realizing that she had actually fallen asleep while she was working.
"What's the big rush, Weasley?" Cho asked as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
"We need to get to St. Mungo's."
Even as groggy as she was, Cho could hear the change in her voice. While before she had been panicked and rushed, she slowed down when she spoke that last sentence as if she was only interested in saying it once.
"Why?" Cho asked cautiously. "Why do we need to go to St. Mungo's?"
"Cho, we don't have time for this." Hermione answered, her rushed tone returning.
"Hermione, I'm not going anywhere if y-"
Suddenly, Hermione turned around and grabbed Cho by the shoulder with a force that Cho didn't think that she had possessed.
"It's Harry." she said simply.
Instantly, Cho understood: something had gone wrong on their trip.
"I can explain more when we get there but right now, we need to go."
Nodding, Cho grabbed her cloak and threw it over her shoulders before approaching the fireplace. Grabbing a handful of the Floo Powder, she threw it into the fireplace and didn't even wait for the fire to change. Instead, she jumped in and shouted her destination: "St. Mungo's!"
With a whip and a pull, Cho fell through the fireplace and onto the magical hospital.
6:13 PM
St. Mungo's
Nearly fifteen minutes later, Hermione and Cho joined the rest of the Weasleys and Luna Lovegood outside Harry's hospital room, waiting for the time when they would be able to see him. As Cho looked around the room, she saw a look of despair that she didn't think she could ever remember seeing. However, she certainly felt it. If there was anyone out there that was going to stop The Jester, it was Harry. She knew that without him, they could very well all be lost.
However, she knew that just like the rest of them, this wasn't about the wizarding world. Instead, this was a personal hurt. The one person that would sacrifice himself over and over again for all of them was laying in a hospital room, alone and potentially dying.
Suddenly, Healer Demelza Robins came out of the door to Harry's room, a dejected look on her face. Sadly, she took a seat next to Ron.
"How is it, Dem?" George asked sadly.
"I was here when they brought Ron in earlier this year. It was bad. But, this makes that look like a cakewalk."
"What happened?" Cho asked, both to Demelza and Ron. Both of them shook their heads.
"Harry and I got separated. I'm not sure what happened. I found him like they're seeing him now." Ron said sadly.
"Harry's got more broken bones than anyone I've ever seen. Internal bleeding everywhere and what looks like it could be potential brain damage. What's amazing is that he's still alive."
"What are his chances?" Hermione asked, tears streaming down her face.
"Honestly, if it were anyone other than Harry, I would expect permanent brain damage, a limp for several years and the internal damage could never go away. However, as it is, it's Harry. He's taking the blood we've been giving him well and much of the internal damage appears to be rather superficial, stuff that will clear up in a few weeks. The brain damage is small, if there's any. The broken bones is the most immediate problem. It looks like he could need a cane for some time. However, we're giving him Skele-Gro and he's already in the process of recovering."
"Is he awake?" Ron asked softly.
"No." Demelza said shaking her head. "He won't wake up for a while. When he does, he's probably going to be very sore. I don't have the kind of pain-reliever that's going to be needed for the amount of damage that was done to him."
"Recovery?" Cho asked.
"Like I said, I imagine that he'll need a cane for at least a month after he wakes up. The worst of the bone damage was done to his left leg. He's going to need to rest a lot and he's going to need a lot of support from you to make sure that he doesn't over-exert himself. His magic is responsible for a lot of why he'll heal. I think that within two or three months, he can be relatively normal again with some occasionally pain."
"How much will he recover?" Ron asked, a terrified look in his eyes.
"He'll probably end up with some recurring pain in his legs and I imagine he won't regain some of the mobility he had before. Other than that, the brain damage will heal and he'll be the same surly Harry we knew before."
"What about Quidditch?" Ginny asked. "He signed a contract with the Pride of Portree a few days ago."
Cho watched as Demelza took a steadying breath before answering her.
"I wouldn't expect him to be back quickly, if at all. However, I do think that if there's anyone that could bring themselves back from this, it's Harry."
April 12, 2004
3:31 PM
St. Mungo's
Everything hurt. His head was pounding, his arms ached and his legs were as sore as he could ever remember them being. The sun shining in his face probably didn't help with the headache. Neither did the screaming.
"HARRY!"
Harry painfully rotated his head to see Cho sprinting down the length of the hall that he was in before collapsing into the chair next to him and placing a giant kiss on his lips. While he certainly liked that, even that hurt him and his obvious discomfort must have forced him to release a groan because instantly Cho backed away.
"I'm sorry." she said softly. "I forgot that you would be sore."
"How long was I out?" Harry asked, knowing exactly what had happened.
"Twelve days." she said softly as Harry turned to notice Hermione and Ron making their way down the hallway towards him.
"Hey." Harry said softly as they got to his bed.
"How are you feeling, Harry?" Hermione asked fearfully.
"I'm really sore and my head is pounding but I'm alive."
Suddenly, Demelza Robins came into the room and began performing some checks on Harry. He remained silent while she performed her tests. Once she was done, she stood up and spoke.
"Alright, you can be awake. Now, since you have friends in the room, I'm going to ask you a few questions. If your friends don't know the answer, we'll move on."
"What's this for, Dem?" Harry asked in confusion.
"We think you may have some minor brain damage. If you can answer these questions, then we can at least clear you there."
"Fine."
"First, what's your middle name?" Demelza asked.
"James." Harry responded quickly. Demelza checked with Ron and Hermione to see that he was correct.
"Good. When were you born?"
"July 31, 1980." Harry responded. Again, she checked and saw that he was correct.
"Alright, good, good. What day did the Battle of Hogwarts take place?"
"May 2, 1998." Again, another positive.
"One more, Harry. What kind of wand do you have?"
"11 inches of holly with a phoenix feather from Fawkes, Albus Dumbledore's phoenix." Harry asked, finally getting a bit perturbed by the questions. "Can we be done with this yet?"
"Of course." Demelza replied. "There shouldn't be any long lasting mental damage. In an hour or so, I'll come back and we can run some structural checks to see how you're responding to pain and whether you can walk and such."
"Alright. Thanks, Demelza." Harry said, watching as his former teammate walked out of the room. Once she was gone, Harry turned to his friends. "So, twelve days? I bet you three were a wreck."
"Shut up, Potter, or Hermione will make sure you stay in this bed." Ron said with a grin.
"Will do." Harry said with a grin as he painfully attempted to sit up. Unfortunately, he only got part of the way up before a pain shot through his back, forcing him back to the bed.
"What happened, Harry?" Cho asked with concern.
Harry knew that he was going to need to tell this story and while he didn't want to right now, he knew that now would be better than any other time. They would have to solve the mystery some time.
"Well, Ron and I found out where The Frenchman lived and we headed there to look for anything that could give us a location on the Jester or more information on the Network. We Apparated to the location that we had been given..."
March 31
5:16 PM Paris Time/4:16 PM London Time
5 Rue Louis Rouffe
Marseilles, France
"Are you kidding me?" Ron said next to him as they landed in the street in front of The Frenchman's home.
"I guess not."
While Grindelwald and The Jester had lived in large mansions in the middle of nowhere with magical protections, it appeared that The Frenchman was much further down on the financial totem pole. His home was an moderate apartment building in Marseilles.
"How do we know which apartment is his?"
"Check for wards." Harry replied. "I'm certain that if he's going to live in town like this, he's going to ward his apartment."
"Fine. Let's just get moving. I want to get home."
"Me too." Harry said as he stepped forward to start checking wards on the various doors in the building.
As Harry climbed the third set of stairs, he suddenly sensed magic pushing back on his sensory spells. Very quickly, Harry knew that he was getting close. Waving his wand, he sensed the push coming from the door just on his right.
"Ron." Harry said softly, causing his friend to turn around and look at the door that Harry was looking at. "This is it."
"You certain?" Ron asked.
"Positive." Harry replied before starting a series of complicated wave motions in front of the door. As Harry started to deconstruct the wards on the apartment, he could tell that the magic performed there was incredibly complicated. However, he also knew that unlike at The Jester's home, he couldn't set them all off. The way Christoph had created these wards created a collapsible net. If Harry tried to force any of the wards down, they would all fall apart on top of each other and the apartment would be closed forever.
For nearly thirty minutes, Harry worked to disable the wards. In all of his years as an Auror and specifically his time as a Curse Breaker, Harry could remember a more complicated set of wards. Thankfully, they still weren't beyond Harry's ability and nearly forty minutes after he started, very tired from the effort it took to take them down, he removed the final ward from the apartment.
"It's done." Harry said weakly.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Harry replied. The look on Ron's face suggested that he was not entirely convinced but he let it go anyway. "Let's go in."
Harry stepped forward and opened the door that he had worked so hard to be able to open. When he opened it and looked inside, he instantly chuckled.
For some reason, Harry had forgotten that The Frenchman had been a wizard and a very good one. Harry had been expecting a normal Muggle apartment. Instead, what he got was a massive and darkly decorated house that was hidden from the rest of the world. Harry was instantly reminded of 12 Grimmauld Place which didn't exist in the Muggle world. He also knew that the Black Family had magically expanded the house for it was much larger than a normal brownstone house.
"Blimey." Ron said softly. "Didn't expect this."
"Me neither." Harry added. "Let's start looking around.
Thankfully for the pair of them, it didn't take them long to find what they were looking for. On the second floor of the apartment, Harry found two libraries on opposite sides of the hall. Once he stepped inside, he knew that they had found what they were looking for. Just like it had been at Grindelwald's castle, there were papers and pictures magically stuck to the walls that weren't covered by bookshelves.
"Take the other library." Harry told Ron. "Look at some of the books if you have time but mostly focus on the papers on the walls."
"Will do, mate." Ron said before turning and walking out of the room.
Separated from Ron, Harry turned around and made his way into the heart of his library. While there were pages all around the room, none of them held any new information other than some speculations on other members of the Network. As Harry wondered around the room, he noticed the shelf of books closest to them. Specifically, he noticed the titles of three books.
The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts
Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century
The Boy Who Lived and The Dark Lord: A Story of Connected Souls
Harry knew the title of all three books. He had read the first two during his time in Auror Training, even though both of them expounded rather incorrectly on the events of his own parents' death. He also knew the third one because it was biography that he had allowed written when he lost his money. Looking at the rest of the shelf, he noticed that all of the books on that same shelf were about Harry and Lord Voldemort. But then, the shelf above it housed an entire collection based on the events of the life of Grindelwald.
However, it was the bottom shelf that was the most interesting. On the bottom was a collection of books on a topic that he had never seen before: legendary creatures. Taking one of the books off the shelf, he noticed that it spoke about the existence of angels and demons within our world. Harry scoffed as he read through the ridiculous book which went into great detail on the existence of the imaginary creatures. Placing the book back on the shelf, he noticed that all of the books on that shelf covered the same subject.
But, it was the last book on the shelf that made him the most curious. Grabbing it by its cover and pulling it off the shelf, he noticed that it was an extremely ancient King James Bible. In fact, Harry opened it and saw the date at the bottom of the first page was 1611. Harry wasn't sure if that made this a first edition but it had to be close.
Opening the book further, Harry was surprised by what he saw. Someone had taken the old book and written in it! Hermione would have been furious, Harry thought. Regardless, he noticed that there were no actual words written. Instead, someone had gone through and underlined certain names. As Harry stood there and read, he finally understood the connection between the names underlined.
They were all angels.
How could someone as talented as Christoph believe in something like angels? While Harry was certain that angels did not exist, there was something strange about The Frenchman's obsession with them. Putting the book down, Harry continued to look around. At the end of the room was a chalkboard. On the board was one sentence written in huge letters:
WHAT IS HE?
What Christoph meant by this he couldn't be sure but he knew that it couldn't be good if he was questioning something like this. Just then, Harry noticed two things sitting on the table in the middle of the room. The first was a set of letters and as Harry approached the table, he could see that they were sent by The Jester. The second was a Pensieve with a memory already floating in the waters.
Harry also noticed an owl sitting perched in the corner of the room. Struck with inspiration, Harry wrote a quick reply to one of the letters that The Jester had sent and then put a simple Tracking Charm on it. Wrapping it up, he took it to the corner of the room where the owl sat.
"Can you take this to Azoli?" Harry asked innocently. The owl did not move. Suddenly, Harry remembered that the bird probably only reacted to orders in French. Quickly, Harry thought about the brief amount of French that he knew, hoping that he could piece together an appropriate answer.
"Donner a Azoli?" Harry said in the most basic French that he knew. However, it worked. The owl stuck out its leg, allowing Harry to tie the letter to its leg before taking off out the nearest window.
Watching as the bird disappeared from view, Harry turned back to the table and the Pensieve. For some reason, he thought it would be important to view this memory. Taking a deep breath, Harry plunged him head into the Pensieve and felt himself pulled down into the memory of the Frenchman.
Harry landed in the middle of a crowded walkway in the middle of Paris. Looking around, he saw the Frenchman sitting alone at a table at a streetside cafe. Rushing over towards him in order to make sure he missed nothing, Harry took a seat next to Christoph. For several minutes, he did nothing but read his newspaper, taking occasional sips of the coffee in front of him. The newspaper said that the day's date was May 14, 2002. Suddenly, a voice that he had thought he would never hear again spoke up.
"Bruno Christoph."
Harry whipped around in his seat to see Noah standing directly behind him. He looked exactly as he had before he had died in Alaska.
"Noah, please take a seat." The Frenchman replied in perfect English.
"I will, thank you." Noah replied as he took the seat across from Christoph, placing Harry directly between the two of them. To say that Harry was confused was seriously selling it short.
"Now, what did you call me here for?"
Finally, Christoph closed his paper and looked at Noah with a fire that Harry knew couldn't mean anything good.
"I think I'm close." he said excitedly.
"How close?"
"I'm fairly certain I know every member of The Network now."
"Except the leader." Noah replied simply.
"Except the leader." Christoph confirmed. "However, I'm definitely the lowest ranking member. We both know Azoli is my boss. Then, Voldemort and Grindelwald were both on the same level as her or one higher. I know that Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy were both recruits at some point."
"So this mystery leader trained Voldemort?"
"Not just Voldemort, but Grindelwald and Azoli as well."
"Interesting." Noah replied softly. "What do you think you now about the leader?"
"He's incredibly powerful. In fact, I'm not even entirely certain he's human."
"What makes you say that?" Noah asked with concern.
"First, his age. In order to have trained Grindelwald, he would have had to have been of appropriate age to train him. We know that he disappeared from the world after leaving Godric's Hollow when he was sixteen. That would have been in 1898. More than likely, he would have to have been at least thirty then which makes him born in 1868. That means he's got to be at 135 years old."
"There have been older wizards." Noah said simply.
"Yes, but older wizards that still made Voldemort unwilling to talk about him and Azoli afraid of him. Those are two incredibly powerful people that are still, to this day, fearful of them."
"True. So what do you think he is?"
"I'm not one hundred percent sure. However, I'm leaning towards believing that he is some kind of super human or some forgotten race of humanity."
"Bruno, I'm not working with madness." Noah replied harshly. "I don't work in legends. Do you have proof of this?"
"No, just speculation based on somethings I've heard from Azoli."
"Fine. Keep working on it. How is Azoli, by the way?" Noah asked.
"She's fine, Noah. She still hates you for not joining us."
"I had better things to do."
"I'm certain." Christoph replied. "Tell me again, why is it so important to find out this information?"
"If we're going to bring down The Network, we need to know who's in charge." Noah replied, obviously getting tired of their conversation.
"Please just tell me you aren't going to screw me over when we take over."
"I reward those who serve me." Noah said darkly. However, Harry could hear something in his tone that gave Harry a glimpse as to what he was thinking. As Harry listened to the conversation, he thought that, at some point, Noah had convinced the Frenchman that he wanted to take over the world. However, Harry knew Noah and he knew that he wanted no such thing. He just wanted to bring the Network down and he knew that the best way to do that was from the inside.
Suddenly, someone sat down at the table across from him. The man wore a cloak of all black that covered his face, preventing him from identifying their newest guest.
I believe you have seen enough, Harry Potter.
Then, just as suddenly as the man sat down, Harry felt himself pulled out of the memory.
Landing on the floor, Harry rolled over to see that the man in the cloak was not a part of the memory. Instead, he had been someone who had entered the Pensieve with him and pulled him out.
Stand.
Harry realized as he followed the order that he wasn't hearing the voice with his ears. Instead, he was hearing it in his mind.
"How are you doing that?" Harry asked the man in the black cloak.
"That is not important." the voice said. "What is important is that you continue to get closer to me."
This man was the leader of the Network. Suddenly, Harry gripped the handle of his hand that much tighter. He was rarely frightened and he wasn't sure that he was now but he knew that Voldemort and The Jester didn't fear this man for nothing.
"I'm only getting closer to you because you choose to employ people like The Jester and The Frenchman to do your business."
"What makes my business your business, Mr. Potter?"
"When your business is to try and take over the world."
"I see." the man in the cloak said before suddenly opening his mouth and speaking roughly. "Well, I suppose that does put us at odds, doesn't it?"
"It does." Harry replied firmly. "The Network is set up to destroy the planet using Dark wizards from all over the world to do it. Meanwhile, you stand in your ivory tower, watch the the world goes under and then reap the benefits."
"Harry Potter, you cannot possibly understand what is going on here." he replied. "There is so much you don't know, so much you will never know."
Suddenly, without a wave of his wand, Harry felt the air begin to press up against him. Soon, he was thrown through the air and hit the bookshelves behind him before collapsing to the ground. Quickly, Harry rushed to his feet and fired a Stunner back at the man.
This time, he did move his arm but there was no wand in his hand when a shield raised up in front of him. Again, Harry felt the air around him push but this time, he was ready. He lifted his wand and silently threw up a Shield Charm. Harry felt the energy of the man's spell blast against his shield, just as powerful as anything he had ever felt.
"You truly are talented, Mr. Potter. I've never known anyone to be able to withstand that spell before. I may actually have to use my wand."
Sure enough, the man withdrew a black wand from his cloak before aiming it at Harry. Quickly, a flash of green exploded from the wand and rushed towards Harry. It was only with a quick dive out of the way that Harry was not killed on the spot.
Rolling with his momentum, Harry jumped to his feet and leveled his wand and for the first time in his life, cast the one curse he told himself he would never use.
"Avada Kedavra!"
The green blast rushed towards the cloaked wizard who simply ducked out of the way. Then, the man in the cloak drew his wand and unleashed a fury of Stunners, Cutters, and Exploding Curses. Finally, one of the Cutting Curses hit Harry in the wand hand, causing him to drop his wand. With a flash, the cloaked man called the fallen wand to him, catching it in mid-air.
"Too bad, Harry Potter. You really are the best wizard in the world. Unfortunately, that doesn't count for anything here."
Instantly, a red jet of light blasted out of the dark man's wand, hitting Harry square in the chest. For the next ten minutes, Harry was tortured, burned, thrown, banished into walls, cut, broken and beaten down in every conceivable way. After a particularly nasty Cutting Curse went straight through his stomach, the man relinquished his control over Harry's body, allowing him to collapse to the floor.
"I will let you live, Harry Potter. Just this once. Now you know the power that I wield. Do not get in my way again. Either way, I will be back for you."
As Harry felt the last of those words echo inside his mind, Harry saw that the man had disappeared, his wand had been placed in front of him and Ron finally broke through the door to the room. Seeing his friend rush towards him, Harry passed out.
April 12, 2004
4:02 PM
St. Mungo's
"Oh my god." Cho said softly next to Harry. Looking around, he saw that all of his friends were looking at him with looks of horror on their faces.
"Harry, what are we supposed to do?" Ron asked from the seat next to him.
"I'm not certain. I know that I can fight that man again. I just need to change tactics. But a man of that power is going to be able to recruit rather easily. We're going to need to do the same."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked from the end of his bed.
"I mean that when I get out of here, I'm reorganizing Dumbledore's Army."