Chapter thirteen

Harry's boss had given him a week off to stay with his son. Two days after James was born, Harry took Ginny and James home. They both walked up the stairs and put their son into his cot, then stood there holding each other as they watched him sleep.

'We should eat and you're mum made us dinner, all we have to do is warm it up,' Harry said and gently pulled Ginny away, 'Come on love, he's asleep,' Harry could tell Ginny didn't want to leave the room, 'And you said I was going to be bad.'

'I know, but I've had him with me for two days straight, right there in my room, it's going to feel strange.'

'You have to get used to it Gin. It wasn't that long ago since he fell asleep, so you can eat and come back up.'

'Alright,' Ginny leaned over and kissed her son's head, then left the room with Harry, 'When he starts getting around, we'll have to charm a lot of things around the whole house.' Ginny was staring around all the rooms until she sat at the table.

'I'll do all that when it's time. But how are you feeling now love?'

'Still a little sore, not too bad though, but the worst part was trying to sleep without you beside me.'

'Yeah, I kept you're pillow against me. But you're home now. Oh and your mum wants to know if we're still going to dinner on Sunday?'

'I think I'll be fine and we can't deny James's grandparents to have him all day. I'll just make sure I rest a lot.'

Harry got their food warmed then dished them both up some, before sitting down. Both of them kept glancing towards the stairs as they ate. The moment they finished, Harry put his arm around Ginny and they went back to their son's room and watched him sleep.

That first night, Harry would feel when Ginny would get out of bed, so he would lie there and watch Ginny feed James. Harry would change him before putting him back to bed. Over the next week, they both go into a routine with James and even though Harry had to go back to work, he still wanted to help during the night.

The morning Harry was due to go back to work, he was sitting on the couch with James in his arms just staring at him and it gave Ginny a chance to sleep. Harry kept touching different parts of his son as he watched him sleep.

'That's a nice memory I will always remember,' Ginny smiled as she sat down, 'Seeing you with our son.'

'Yeah, I don't want to leave him Gin, but I know I have to.'

'Do you want me to bring him to the office, I told everyone in my old office I'd bring him in so they could see him.'

Harry smiled at his wife, 'I'd like that. I know I'll be out this morning, but I should be back by lunch, which we could do together.'

'Alright, it's a date Mr. Potter. Now hand me our son and go to work.'

Harry nodded, kissed his son, then placed the baby in his mother's arms, before kissing Ginny. He walked over to the fireplace, looked back at his family, then left for work. Harry made his way to the auror offices, then stepped inside.

'So daddy Potter is finally back,' Alice called.

'You can tell his a new daddy, look at the bags under his eyes. You're letting yourself go there Harry,' Katherine chuckled.

Harry scowled at the two woman, 'I like to help Ginny of a night, plus I don't want to put James back in his room.'

'I bet you had trouble leaving this morning,' Ron laughed.

'Yeah, I didn't want to leave, but knew I had no choice. Ginny's going to drop in for lunch though.'

'Good, I'll get to see the heir of the saviour again,' Lucy laughed loudly.

'I'm going to start hexing if that name keeps getting used by you lot. So Ron, what are we doing?'

'A few more muggle murders. The boss wants us to question some other muggles and since you grew up as a muggle, you'll know how to act like those detectives they have.'

'So we need to transfigure our clothes to normal suits. Have you got the badges ready?'

'Yep,' Ron tossed a small black wallet to Harry, 'So detective Evans, ready to go.'

'Whose idea was it to use my mother's name?'

'Mine, it's a pretty common name. Potter, even though it's not that rare, some muggles are related to witches and wizards,' Tim said as he walked out, 'Everyone knows the name Harry Potter.'

'I get that boss, sometimes my name is a hindrance,' Harry pointed his wand at his clothes, then put the badge in his suit pocket, 'Okay, is the car on the street.'

'Sent it there the moment I came in,' Tim said, 'It's ready for you to appear in, then just take the enchantments off it.'

'Let's go daddy,' Ron said putting his hand on Harry's shoulder.

'It'll be you're turn soon Ron,' Harry nodded to his boss, then left with Ron. They got to the apparition point and instantly apparated away from the ministry and straight into a car in a quiet muggle street. Harry waved his wand to remove the enchantments, then they both stepped out and walked up the path leading to a house then Harry knocked.

A man opened the door, 'Can I help you?'

'Yes, I'm detective Evans, this is detective Granger,' Harry and Ron showed their badges, 'We'd like to ask you some questions about what happened to your neighbours.'

'Oh yes, terrible, they were such a nice family.'

'Did you see anyone around their place that day?' Harry asked.

'The only person I saw at all that day was a dark haired boy, he was about six or seven by the look of him. He came to our door earlier, said he was lost and wanted to know if he could come in and ring his parents.'

'Did you let him in Sir?' Ron asked.

'No, I just got a bad feeling about him and he didn't look upset at all. In fact he looked mean, he had this sneer that sent shivers up my spine. But he couldn't have murdered that whole family, he was just a boy.'

'Probably not Sir, but we need to check everything. Did he tell you his name?' Harry asked.

'Yes, Thomas, he never said his last name though.'

'Do you know if he spoke to anyone else?'

'Yes, he went to number seven and number eighteen, asked them if he could use their phone to call his parents. Michael at seven said he thought the kid look like a criminal, so he never let him in, just told him the way to the police station.'

'Did you see him go into your neighbours place at all?'

'No, after I closed the door, I never saw him again. But I did hear what I thought was the sound of a car backfiring, a loud cracking sound, that was about an hour or so later.'

'Thank you for your time sir, if we need to ask any more questions, we'll contact you,' Harry gave him a nod, then he left with Ron and spoke to the people at number seven and eighteen. They basically said the same thing, the kid didn't look upset and they heard the car backfiring. Harry and Ron went to the house where the muggle family was murdered and looked around. 'So for some reason a kid is murdering muggles.'

'Yeah, so unless he was born to evil parents, why would he murder muggles?'

'I don't know Ron, but this is the fourth family so far.' Harry pulled out a folder from inside his jacket and started to read, 'All the witnesses said the same thing, a boy with dark hair was seen around the time of the murders and he always asked to use the phone. So whoever has raised him knows a bit about muggles. First to make sure he knew what a phone was, then to say he was lost. That is something a muggle child would say if he was really lost,' Harry moved further into the room and crouched down, then waved his hand through the air, 'Dark magic Ron, definitely the killing curse, but there's more,' Harry moved to another part of the room and waved his hand again, 'He tortured them first, I can feel the pain right here in this area.' Harry moved back to the first spot, then closed his eyes, 'He killed the girl first,' Harry concentrated, 'The mother next, the boy and the father last. It's like he wanted the father to see his family die.'

'We weren't sure which order. Do you want to check the other places, see if it's the same?'

'Yeah, because if it is the same, it could mean this kid has a thing about his father and is taking it out on other father's. Maybe he's father's a muggleborn, a squib, or even a muggle.'

'Okay, let's just apparate straight there, do you thing and we can find out,' Ron nodded to Harry as he stood up, then they both apparated away. They arrived inside another house, Harry walked around until he crouched down.

'The killing curse again,' Harry moved around the room, 'Torture,' he moved back to the first spot, 'The mother first, then the boy, grandmother, then father last,' Harry stood up and faced Ron, who was writing down what Harry said, 'So far the same, let's check the other two before we head back.'

Harry and Ron went to both the other homes, Harry repeated the process while Ron wrote everything down. They went back to the car, enchanted it and they disappeared from inside. They went straight back to their office and knocked on their boss's door who came out instead of having Ron and Harry go in.

'What did you find?'

'A pattern, the father was always the last to die and they were all tortured first. Usually with the cruciatus curse. The first father was cut before they were all killed. I think this kid has a thing about his father, he's either a muggleborn or a muggle, maybe a squib,' Harry said.

'Sounds reasonable if he's making the father last, which means he wants the father to see his family die. Anything else?' Tim asked.

'The few witnesses said they heard what sounded like a car backfiring, now I've heard that a few times and it does sound like apparition. So this kid is apparating out of there.'

'He's also dark haired, but the three families that we spoke to said he looked either like he was a criminal or mean so they never let him in to use the phone,' Ron said then handed the file to his boss.

'So he's been brought up to know muggle items, maybe his father was a muggle. The hit wizards have gone over all the bodies. Never found anything that might tell us who this kid is.'

'Do you know if they found hair or skin that might have belonged to the kid?' Harry asked.

'I don't know, why Harry?' Tim asked.

'In the muggle world, they can do this thing call DNA testing. They need either blood, hair or skin, something like that anyway. They can test it, find out if the person is related to someone. Let me explain a bit, I don't know too much about this. Say they took hair from Ron, then hair from Ginny, they can test it and find out they are brother and sister by their DNA strand. They can also tell if a father is the real father of a kid. That gets used for paternity quite a bit.'

'Alright, I'll get them to go over the bodies again. But we'll need someone that can find out about this DNA stuff. We'll still need something to check it against though.'

'Yes, but if their killing muggles, then they might be linked to some death eaters, maybe family members of death eaters. We could put in a request to get all the death eaters blood, test it against what gets found on the bodies.'

'Sometimes it's handy that you know the muggle world. I'll put the request in, go fill out your reports. Good work you two,' Two smiled then went back to his office with the hope they didn't find any more murdered muggles.