I am dedicating this chapter to Sapphire Immortal for their part in getting me to finish up this chapter and post it. Thank you!

Now, let's see what this case has in store for us!

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Harry Potter: Paranormal Investigator

Chapter 3: Another Day, Another Job Well Done?

Harry popped into existence a few blocks from his destination, and began walking over. It was early evening, and the sun was just enough to keep him comfortably warm for his short walk. It was finally time to actually meet the elderly owner of the house that was his next case, and Harry would be arriving exactly on time as usual. It paid to be punctual, especially when such a small thing was able to build the client's trust for a stranger that would be spending a night in their house. There was still time for the homeowner to cancel, but it wasn't likely, especially since it often took a lot to get people who had a true paranormal problem to actually call it in.

Harry made it to the front door and walked up to announce his arrival. He rang the doorbell and turned away to inspect the rest of the street. It was more to seem less intense than it was to actually check anything out; he couldn't count the number of times that clients had answered the door and actually jumped back in surprise when seeing him staring back at them. He'd been told repeatedly that his eyes were an unusually bright shade of green. How that startled them, he was never quite sure.

The wizard eventually heard the slow, deliberate footsteps of the owner coming toward the door and, with a brief squeaky sound of a bolt being unlocked, the door was finally opened. Harry turned with a gentle smile on his face and his hand extended in order to introduce himself.

"Good evening, sir. I am Harry Potter, the Paranormal Investigator that you contacted about some strange happenings around your home. May I come in?"

The older man nodded and stepped aside with a gesture to guide Harry to the living room. Once they were both seated and the resident had regained his wheezing breath, they were able to discuss the situation as well as the contract. Harry never really liked using contracts, but in the Muggle World, it was quite necessary, especially to help the homeowners feel more secure about letting the investigator work in their home. Once the papers were signed, Harry stood and helped the man named Charles Blufton to his feet.

"Could you give me a tour of the house and let me know what happens and where?" The man nodded and led the way for a very short tour of his small house.

"I can hear the whispers at night all through the place, no matter where I am. But, I have all of the worst feelings in here…" He trailed off and let Harry get a look into the room in front of him. It was a small bedroom area that had been turned into a slightly cramped office. Boxes littered the floor next to the desk, full to the brim of random knickknacks and papers. Nothing obviously stood out as not belonging, but there was a feeling of discomfort: a sense of unease with the surroundings that had no discernible source. Harry nodded to himself: this was almost definitely the room.

The short tour concluded in the kitchen, and then Mr. Blufton retrieved his light coat for his night stay with his son in another part of the city. He wouldn't be gone long, but Harry knew that the investigation wouldn't likely even require the full night in order to take care of things. Once the man had driven away, Harry got right to work and headed back in to the converted bedroom. He could feel the hairs on his arm raise at the feel of dark magic. One detection spell later and Harry was prowling the room, looking inside every door and dresser. When the detection spell for beings came back with nothing, Harry knew that this case wouldn't be as relatively easy as he was used to. Either whatever it was could hide itself from detection, or it wasn't sentient. Harry might have to search the entire room to come up with the answer.

The search took unfortunately long with the all of the clutter that was in the room, but a bit of magic to keep pointing him in the right direction and three hours found Harry picking up what looked like an old and dirty children's toy with long tongs, too wary and experienced to touch the thing with bare skin. This little thing, packed away in one of the many boxes and likely long forgotten, was the most likely culprit of any unease and strange happenings around the house; his skin was nearly tingling in discomfort for simply being so near the thing. Another few detection spells told Harry that there was nothing inhabiting the toy, so it was likely cursed. Unfortunately, that would mean that he would have to call in a curse expert to dispel it, since Harry didn't have the experience doing so himself. He'd tried it before, and ended up in Saint Mungos for his trouble. Obviously, he'd learned better since then. He would contact a man that Ron had suggested to him years ago who also worked in the Auror Corp. although in a different department. The curse wouldn't be able to be taken care of until the next evening, due to the man's work hours, but it would be a relatively easy thing to get him to come out. With hope, the curse itself would be just as easy to take care of.

Harry took a moment to secure the toy under a glass case, mostly in order to make sure the owner didn't accidentally touch the thing. The Paranormal Investigator had no clue what kind of curse might be on the tin toy, but he had no desire for anyone to end up finding out the hard way. After placing the cursed thing under a glass protector out of the way, he sat down to write a note to the owner, knowing from past experience that a phone call at this time of night was not always well-received. He wouldn't be taking the toy with him, mostly out of reluctance to face the chance that someone would accuse him of stealing. With his note finished and placed where it would be easily noticed, Harry took one more stroll through the house to check for any other problems before packing up his belongings and leaving, locking the home up behind him. He'd call in the expert first thing tomorrow on the floo and set up a time to meet after the workday was over. He also made a mental note to call the owner around mid-day to make sure they were good to go for the evening.

Soon, Harry was walking in through his own door and collapsing on his bed into well-deserved rest.

…

Harry woke up the next day in the late morning. He felt slightly bleary, but knew a bit of caffeine would fix him up. A check of the time after he had a small breakfast made him hurry over to the floo. Edison, his expert on curses, would likely be taking his lunch break soon, and Harry really needed to catch him before he left the office. He wouldn't be able to confirm a time with the new client until he spoke to the curse expert. A quick floo call settled a good meeting time, and then Harry moved on to make the call to Mr. Blufton.

His assumption that the older man had already returned home was proved correct when the phone was answered. Harry had to field a few questions about what he had done about the problem, and then about any change in pricing when he told the man that he'd need to call in an expert to finish taking care of the issue. Once the questions were answered satisfactorily, the home owner agreed to meet the expert later in the evening, and hung up. Harry had the rest of the day free until the meeting to look at other potential cases. It was with a bit of reluctance that he started browsing through his emails once more and planning his afternoon trip to various houses around England to decide on the next case.

One email from his last case nearly made him roll his eyes. Some people were simply impossible to convince. He'd leave it until later, when other potentially more dangerous cases were scouted. He had more important things to do than try to placate a couple people who were sure that he must be wrong about the cause of their anxiety.

With that decided, Harry wrote down any notes that he might need when he visited the next few houses. Finally, he wearily pushed himself from his desk and got himself ready to visit one or two of the potential sites. He doubted whether he'd have time to pay a visit to all of them before it was time to meet his curse expert at Mr. Blufton's house, but getting anywhere with checking off his To-Do list was better than doing nothing with the time he had.

When the time came around for Harry to meet his client again along with Edison from the Auror Force, he had only just finished looking at two potential places for his next case, neither of which was too terribly promising, but at least one had potential. The paranormal investigator was used to getting requests from businesses wanting to cash in on the wow factor of having been investigated for the paranormal. Thus, most similar requests were easy to throw out. However, for once it seemed a business located in an area of actual haunting had messaged him with fair accountings of various happenings. It didn't seem too bad, just occasionally startling, so Harry knew he'd need to look at other potentials before getting back to the small Hotel that had contacted him from Lincolnshire.

A low pop sounded, signaling Harry's exit as he apparated back to Summercourt.

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I want to thank everyone for their patience in waiting for me to get my butt in gear and write. It's been difficult to get it done lately, with life intruding all too often.