Chapter 5: Breadcrumbs

Harry Potter appeared on a bustling main street in Hogsmede village. The students of the nearby Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are led to believe that their business keeps the local shops open. Eventually though, they learn how wrong they are. The streets are empty on the days they visit because everyone knows when they are visiting and everyone stays as far away as possible. Every other day, the village fills up with witches and wizards eager to commune with people like them. It is one of only a few places in England where a witch or wizard can be who they are; not needing to hide anything.

Harry Potter hated the place. For one thing it held too many bad memories, one of which flooded his mind when he had appeared. He had appeared at the exact same location in 1997, carrying Albus Dumbledore to his death. Harry now knew that Dumbledore was already terminally ill, that he had allowed Draco to succeed so that he didn't have to suffer the death which was coming; but that knowledge did nothing to take away Harry's guilt. Dumbledore was dead, and Harry had taken him there.

The main reason that Harry hated Hogsmede and places like it was the scar on his forehead. The scar, the result of his meeting with a killing curse, was an unmistakable identifying mark in the wizarding world. He couldn't go three steps in Hogsmede without getting stopped and asked for an autograph. All because his parents had died fighting the greatest dark wizard of all time while the autograph seekers were cowering in their homes or fleeing the country. No, Harry Potter preferred the muggle world. That's why he had returned to live at Privet Drive (though NOT number 4): it was the only place he hadn't been worshiped. There was comfort in that.

As a famous auror, he needed to find a way to travel anonymously. Hermione had suggested both "the camouflage spell" (as he called it) which reminded him too much of the first wizard he had seen use it: Mad-eye Moody. The other option was the invisibility cloak which reminded him too much of the wizards who had owned it before him: Albus Dumbledore and his father. He decided on the cloak today; he couldn't be noticed if he intended to disappear.

He had come to Hogsmede to find the best auror he knew; the Headmistress of Hogwarts. He originally went to Diagon Alley, but none of his family was there. When he went home, Ginny informed him that everyone had gone home. There was no way they were going shopping when Albus was in danger. It had taken him almost an hour to convince James and Lily that he was doing what he could, that Albus would be ok and that they were not allowed to help. He noticed that breakfast had gone uneaten.

Thus he apparated as close as he could to Hogwarts, intending to seek council from Hermione. Now that he was here, he was wondering what he wanted. He had no leads, he had nothing for her to look at. He didn't even have a question to ask her. What did he expect to get? What he needed was to stop and think, something he hadn't done all day. But, the castle could provide someplace for that too.

He was amazed at how well he remembered the school. He had slipped into Honeydukes and into the cellar with relative ease. The secret tile had taken only ten minutes to find. Harry went through the tunnel and then out the one-eyed witch and into the castle. He had returned to the castle only a couple of times since the Battle, but it felt like Hogsmede to him: too many bad memories. And with the hallways empty, the memories were all he had.

Hogwarts was different when it was empty. The buzz of the students was gone, replaced by the echo of his steps on stone floors. Every creak was magnified, every shadow enhanced. Harry thought that it looked haunted; then remembered that it was.

He moved quickly through the halls, every turn bringing another memory: a wall that had been destroyed and rebuilt, a vision of an army of desks moving past, stepping over the body of a fallen wizard. But there were some good memories here too: memories of his friends, memories of his favorite teachers, memories of Neville losing his toad. According to James, he was still losing that toad. He stepped out of a secret passageway and walked past a seemingly empty wall. I need a place to think. Then he backed tracked past the wall, I need a place to think. Again past the wall, again I need a place to think. Suddenly a door appeared in the wall which Harry entered.

He thought he had walked into Sherlock Holmes' living room. The room was paneled in a dark wood with candles all around. There was a padded couch, a recliner, a table all placed around a roaring fireplace. Next to the far wall sat a writing desk with a notepad, quill and plenty of ink. The desk sat under a large, bay window that overlooked a beautiful, forested landscape that definitely wasn't Hogwarts. Harry took off his invisibility cloak and laid it over the sofa before gravitating to the window. "Where are you Albus?" Harry thought aloud.

Suddenly the scene changed, and the window showed a large park in the middle of a sprawling metropolis. Harry jumped back, then looked harder. He couldn't see Albus' flaming red hair anywhere. He moved onto examining the city. He felt as if he should know that skyline, but he couldn't place it.

"You do know that I removed the all-knowing potions books from here, don't you?"

Harry jumped a little higher than he would ever admit to James. He turned around to see a witch with bushy brown hair flowing over a muggle outfit. She had a piece of parchment in her hands.

"Hermione! How did you...how...I didn't even call for you. How did you know I was here?"

Hermione motioned to the parchment. "Messrs Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs told me," she said smiling.

"I thought you hated that thing."

"Well, being in rule enforcement has given me a new appreciation of its effectiveness." She motioned to the recliner, "Take a rest Harry." She pulled the desk chair over and faced the recliner as Harry sat down. Drinks appeared on the table, which Hermione offered to Harry.

"Wait a minute, how did you get in the room. I couldn't ever get it to let me in when Draco was here."

"You left the door open."

"Oh."

There was a long silence finally broken by Hermione. "What are you looking at?" Harry stirred.

"Sorry, I was looking out the window. I think it is showing me where Albus is, or at least where he was." Harry got up and walked to the window, "It started showing something else, then changed when I asked where Albus was."

"Harry, the room isn't psychic. How can it know where Albus is?"

"I don't know. It just does. He's there, I know it. Only problem is I can't tell where there is."

Hermione hadn't left her seat, only turned it to follow Harry. "Harry, if Albus doesn't want to be found, he won't be. He's the smartest wizard I've ever met; smarter than me, smarter than Dumbledore. He has studied you too, read all the books we released about the war, and every book that was written by anyone else. He's watched you do your auror thing his whole life. He knows you better than you do. If you're going to find him, you'll need to use things he doesn't know you have."

Harry just stared out the window. He didn't know what to say, Hermione was right after all, Albus was the smartest wizard Harry had ever met. And he had watched Harry do "his auror thing" very closely. Hermione walked over to the window, standing next to Harry. "What did he say exactly?"

"I need to prove I belong in this family. I need to prove I am just as good as James, and Lily, and you and mom and Uncle Ron, Percy, Fred, aunt Hermione. Oh and he said I couldn't find him. What would he do to prove himself? He's 15, what can he do?"

"He's 15, but his ability is way beyond that. He makes NEWT level magic look easy. There's no limit to what he'll think he can do. But Harry, he is only book smart; he doesn't have the real world training you got your first 4 years. He won't know what he's getting himself into."

"What exactly are you thinking, Hermione?"

"He needs to be just as good as a list of people who fought and defeated Voldemort. To be just as good as them, he has to take down a dark wizard."

"But Hermione, there aren't any dark wizards of that caliber out there: we've taken every upstart down."

"That we know of. But Harry, he obviously thinks he found one or he wouldn't be there," she said, motioning to the window.

"Where is 'there' exactly?"

"You don't recognize it? Look to the east, in the harbor."

"Which skyscraper are you looking at?"

"Not a skyscraper, IN the harbor?"

Harry saw it, a statue of a woman holding a torch in the sky. The Statue of Liberty in New York City. "New York," he said, adding a word he was sure Mrs. Weasley wouldn't want to hear.

"Exactly, and you're not going there. Not after the war..."

"NEAR war," Harry corrected.

"Yes, yes. Near war. Point is that you'll need to respect the jurisdiction of the American Ministry. You DO have reason to come into their territory, but you'll need to tell them first. If you don't and you threaten the peace, Percy will kill you himself."

Harry finally turned from the window. "Thanks Hermione, you always seem to know what to do," he said as he walked to the sofa and picked up his cloak. He walked to the door, and then turned back, pulling a galleon out of his pocket. "Stay on call," he said and then walked out the door, pocketing the galleon.