On a dark deserted street in Leeds a tall thin young man in a black trench coat walked silently in the shadows. Dirty darkened windows, like blank unseeing eyes were the only witnesses to his solitary walk.
If you looked closely you would see a long thin face under an unruly mop of black hair. Barely visible, on his forehead, was a jagged scar.
Harry Potter was working. Two days ago the body of a young woman had been found beaten to death on this very street. The only clue to her identity had been a long wooden stick she was clutching.
Knowledgeable people on the local police force contacted the MOM. Now most muggles, non magical people, have no idea that a ministry of magic even exists. But the magical war that ended in 1998 had taught the wizarding world that cooperation with the non magical world was essential.
They had not identified the young witch yet. Piro Incanti done on her wand had reveled nothing but normal household charms.
Harry was following a hunch. He suspected that her death had nothing to do with her being a witch and everything to do with her being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Harry found a likely looking building corner, nice and dark. He leaned back against the wall to wait.
Ron was most uncomfortable. He had no idea how Hermione ever breathed in this bra! No they had not joined a swinging, cross dressing, couples club, Hermione had donated a few of her hairs so he could go undercover as an eligible bird.
He sipped his "cocktail", actually poly juice potion, and scanned the room. A group of seedy looking young men were getting steadily drunker at a corner table. A large one was pointing at "Hermione" and whispering to his friends.
The publican called last drink and "Hermione" paid her bill. (Wooten was having a fine time playing the jovial barman).
Ron headed for the door, careful to stumble just a bit on the way. Walking slowly, with "her" coat pulled snug for protection against the wind "she" wove her way down the darkened street.
Just as he had hoped the group of young men were following. He made certain to keep just ahead of their drunken progress until he passed the corner where he knew Harry waited.
Unknown to the group of young men Wooten and the MOM's local police contact were following at a safe distance.
"Hermione" suddenly dropped her bag, the contents spilling out. "She" half fell, half bent down to retrieve the wayward contents.
Just as she did the gang jumped her. Five drunken thugs were very surprised to find how strong this apparent wisp of a woman was. They were also surprised to find three very athletic gentlemen aiding the young woman.
Later they would all claim to have suffered head injuries in the struggle, having no memory of how they came to be at the local police lock-up.
While those low life's were trying to figure out how they had gotten incarcerated and when they had confessed to a series of robberies and beatings Harry was searching one of their flats.
Under Versantium one of the thugs had confessed to being the one who held the items they had stolen until they could be fenced. He soon found a wallet that held the identification of their dead girl.
Harry had just wrapped up his report as the sky lightened. Ron, once again dressed in his auror robes, had finished his report while Harry had been searching the flat. He had his feet up on his desk in his cubicle and was fast asleep.
Harry hatred to wake him but they both needed to get some sleep before being back here this afternoon.
At 4 p.m. Kingsley was holding a news conference announcing the retirement of Wooten, effective December 31st. He would also announce that Harry Potter would be the new head of the auror department effective at 5 pm. New year's eve day.
After the news conference Wooten had scheduled a meeting with the whole department. Harry knew he had to be on his toes. One or two of the older aurors would be upset that a 27 year old was the head of the department. He hoped to settle their minds at the meeting.
Harry climbed in to bed with Ginny. She rolled over and smiled. "Well hello Mr. Potter, fancy meeting you here! Did you operation tonight go well?"
"Why yes Mrs. Potter it did. Ron made a fetching Hermione. Although he kept complaining about a certain undergarment you ladies wear."
They both collapsed in a fit of giggles.
Ginny became serious. "Darling are you ready for this afternoon? You know there will be a lot of press interest again. I know how much you love dealing with the press!"
Harry grinned wickedly, "There is one sports reporter I adore dealing with."
Ginny lifted her wand from the bedside table and locked the bedroom door. "Mr. Potter would you like to demonstrate how you deal with this press?"
A sleepy, but smiling Harry appeared at the press conference later that day.
What a time it had been since that day! Harry had immediately left active field work and spent the rest of that year learning how to be head Auror.
Then there had been the hoops the Wizengot had put up, how could he be ready at such a young age, how could he supervise his best friend, all that old bull.
Kingsley had stood by him and Wooten, who was eager to retire, was an excellent teacher so on January 1st he was ready.
Harry was looking forward to dinner tonight. His new position as head of the auror department had been taking up almost as much time as working in the field had. Along with how busy her three Quidditch reporting jobs was keeping Ginny they had hardly seen each other.
18 days, he had been head of the auror department 18 days. He had been right a couple of the older aurors had been resentful, one had retired in December and one was due to retire in February.
The auror class Ron had been in had netted 6 new, highly skilled individuals. The class due to graduate in two weeks Had a total of four that looked promising.
Harry had his Friday meeting with Kingsley and then he could head home to get ready for his date with his wife.
Teresa, the young witch they had hired to help Kreacher with the children when Ginny had out of town assignments, had the boys fed and ready when Harry apperated home. James was bubbling with excitement at staying the weekend with Andromeda and Teddy. Albus was patiently "reading" one of his toddler books. Fleur and Bill were going to keep him for the weekend. Louis and Albus were kindred spirits. Nothing much bothered either of them.
Harry had a quick shower and changed in to muggle clothing. He got back down stairs in time to kiss Albus good-bye before Bill apperated with him to shell cottage.
Harry paid Teresa for the week and took James by the hand. "You ready little man?"
"Yes Daddy let's go to Teddy's!"
A half an hour later Harry was picking up roses from the florist.
Ginny looked stunning in a form fitting blue number. They were at a muggle Thai restaurant. She was recapping her week of hectic travel when Harry felt a vibration in his breast pocket.
He discreetly pulled a Galleon from his pocket. On the face where one would expect official words about the country or Gringots there were just three numbers, 911.
Wooten had instituted the use of the Galleons during his time as head and the highest priority code was 911.
Harry kissed Ginny and smiled apologetically and quickly left the restaurant, looking for a safe place to apperate.
Holding the galleon, which acted as a sort of magical guidance system, he apperated to a busy pier.
A sign read: the Port of Dover, Kent.
Two members of a Russian cargo ship were dead of what was most certainly Aveda Kedavra . Ron was waiting for him.
"Sorry to bring you out but I knew you would want to hear about this one. If the killing curse wasn't bad enough the crew identified Lucius Malfoy as the one who cast it. Apparently he caught a ride from the Balkans. They were bound for France but he forced them to dock here. He made his point by killing the captain and first mate."
Harry took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I wondered when he'd surface again. Did the crew have any idea why he returned to England now?"
"They didn't but O'Reilly found this in his cabin." Ron handed a worn newspaper clipping to Harry.
Narcissa and Draco Malfoy to reopen Malfoy Mansion.
A spokesman for the family made a brief statement. " The family has returned to their home so that Mr. Draco Malfoy's wife can give birth to their son here in the UK. The family requests that members of the press and the public respect their privacy."
The clipping was almost three years old.
"O'Reilly and Whipple apperated directly to Malfoy mansion to warn them and help strengthen the defenses."
"Well done Ron you all have handled this brilliantly. I guess I need to pay a call on Draco and see what we can do to keep them safe."
"Potter, I appreciate your department's quick response. I'm very concerned for the safety of my family."
Draco's usually well groomed hair was disheveled, as if he had been running his hand through it.
"Draco do you have any idea why your father has returned?"
"I can only assume it is some crazed idea concerning my son. He's not been exactly happy with the way I turned out. He probably thinks he can kidnap Scorpios and raise him to be a good little death eater."
"Would it be alright with you if I put a round the clock security detail inside and outside the mansion? We will do our best to find your father quickly and remove him to where can not possibly cause any harm."
24 hours later they had tracked down every lead and still had not found Lucius Malfoy. Harry had sent a third of his force, including Ron, home to get 8 hours sleep. Kingsley had notified the muggle prime minister. All available resources were being used to try and apprehend Malfoy before he killed again.