CH 22 Emergency Map Making

We had a computer problem at work that delayed this chapter.

Thanks as always to FriendofMolly, who contributed a few key phrases, and caught at least one big, dumb spelling mistake.

One October late morning Harry was out in the field when he received a call on his cell phone, from Mary Lou, with the urgent ring tone, one level short of the Patronus ring tone. The message on the screen said "Caroline FM VanLente is here and needs to see you, Floo speed." Harry quickly took his leave from the people he was with. It was not all that unusual for Harry or Dennis to be out and suddenly be called away. Harry quickly apparated back to the office.

Caroline greeted Harry warmly and said, "Remember the group of wizards that the Asian Aurors have been trying to capture, the ones involved in human trafficking and major thefts of Muggle property among other things."

Harry said, "They seem to be a large and nasty group of Magi. I know that Dan, Willie and Bill have been spending a lot of time helping the Chinese and Asian Aurors on this case."

"They are getting close to capturing a significant number of them, Harry," said Caroline. "Al is with them now. We could use a couple of the Aurors that have International experience right away and please let everybody know that a level three or four all Auror alert is not out of the question."

"I can do that," said Harry. "Dennis my second in command and I will see if we can get a couple of the younger Aurors who have just come off their two year assignments as International Aurors and send them over to help right away."

"Thank you," said Carrie. "We also think we are going to need your personal assistance with mapping at some point. Could you please have about fifty parchments ready to go, and a bag with personal items? I asked Al how long you would be involved personally, and he said he hoped a week or less, but it was hard to predict. He said if you had any potions you take every day take a month's worth. Al doesn't really think there is anything that will occupy you for a month, but this there are too many unknowns with this operation."

"I'd better tell Ginny as soon as I have things taken care of here," said Harry. "I should be able to have the mapping papers ready in a day."

"Thank you, Harry," said Carrie. "When they call you they are really going to appreciate the help."

"You're worried," said Harry. "I can tell from your voice."

"Not so much for Al, and if you are at a distance doing mapping you should be safe enough, but Bill and Dan and even Willie are going to be too close, right in the middle of the action," said Carrie. "My reflexes are not good enough anymore, so they don't let me close to the danger areas, but I've had my own close calls, and I've seen enough death and damaged people to last a dozen lifetimes." Carrie slowly got up from the chair across from Harry and shook his hand, and before they were through they had hugged. Harry could see that Carrie was worried. This was the biggest and most dangerous assignment in some time.

Harry called a special meeting of his management team for that evening, and called Ginny to let her know that he was going to be home after dinner. He briefly filled her in on what was happening. At the dinner meeting they picked the four Aurors who might want the special assignment. The first two were a very ambitious witch and wizard; more wizards than witches wanted the excitement of the foreign assignments but this witch was exceptional. Both of them were relieved of their duties and transferred to the International Aurors "for the duration." The other two were called in and told that if a level 3 all Auror alert was called they were going to have to respond immediately, with no time to get ready, and everybody who had any international experience was notified that if a level 4 all Auror alert was called they would have to go. Harry was going to take the next day off to make mapping papers, and then be ready for when he was called. Dennis was usually ready to take over for Harry anyway, and they were just going to be a little more ready for Harry to be gone.

Harry got back home a little before ten PM. Ginny was upstairs in the drawing room, working on a column on her laptop. She took one look at Harry and said, "Worried?"

"A little," he said. "Maybe more than a little, but not for me. I'm usually not that close to the line of fire when I'm mapping. But I'm worried for our Aurors who are going to be there, and I'm worried for the VanLente family. I love being an Auror, except once in a while when I hate it. It's what I should be doing, and I'm making a difference, making the world a better place, which is what I always wanted."

"You would not be happy if you were not trying to make the world a better place, Harry," said Ginny. "That's one of the reasons I love you. If I was selfishly trying to keep you all to myself you would not be happy, and neither would I. I'm talking to a healer again, once a month. I'm trying to understand why I'm so insecure. Part of it is being small, and the youngest, and the only girl, and never quite getting over that position in the family. Part of it is all the women who wanted you after the Battle of Hogwarts, not that you ever gave me the slightest reason to be worried, but all those letters did upset me. They still come once in a while, and I see women look at you like you are quite a catch, and part of me is proud I yessed you into marrying me, and part of me is still a little scared. Part of it is knowing that I'm not perfect, or even what I was, and wanted to be. I still have the scars, not only physical but mental, from the war, and from the bludger hit. I still cannot wear high heels, am still unsteady on my feet. And I'm heavy, not at my ideal weight. So I get a little upset whenever you are gone, and I shouldn't. It's not your problem, it's mine."

"I love you, Ginny," said Harry. "The last thing I want to do is to make you sad or upset."

"I know you do, Harry," said Ginny. "I really want you to keep doing what you are doing. You are making the world a better place, and in the end you and I are going to be happier if you keep doing it."

"I'm sure my eyes are not the best," said Harry, "but I look at you and still think you are the most beautiful woman in the world, and the best thing that has ever happened to me."

"Well then you'd better keep wearing those rose colored glasses," said Ginny with a sly smile. "You are the least vain person I know, and I'm still vain, want to look not good enough but spectacular. More insecurity."

"Shall we go upstairs?" asked Harry.

"And make love, like we do most nights, because I love to make love to you, and also because I am still insecure, and need reassurance most nights," said Ginny. "Unlike Ron and Hermione, who do not do it all that often, maybe once a week, but then occasionally spend most of the day in one of their marathon sessions."

Harry got a smile on his face and said, "And then Ron is so tired and sore, and has such a silly grin on his face."

"Hermione too," said Ginny. "They're funny!"

Harry and Ginny got up in the morning as usual. At breakfast Harry asked Al, "Do you think you could help me with mapping papers this morning?"

Albus said, "I'll let Rose and her grandma know, and then I'll help you."

James said, "Getting out of school work again? Do it too often and you'll be in Hufflepuff for sure."

Al laughed. "At the worse I won't be smart enough for Ravenclaw, and will have to be in Gryffindor instead."

"Aunt Hermione was in Gryffindor," said James, rising to the taunt, "and she's the smartest witch in the world."

"It's going to be decided by the sorting hat at Hogwarts, not by you two arguing over breakfast," said Ginny. "James, Lily, we need to get going to the New Burrow for lessons."

"More lessons," said Lily with a sigh. "Why do I have to wear trainers instead of pretty shoes? And pants and an ugly shirt, just because we may be potting plants. Life just isn't fair."

"Lily ought to wear the kind of clothes I had to wear when I was her age, all ugly gray clothes that did not fit me," said Harry.

"Oh Dad," said Lily, "Not that old story again."

It only took a couple of minutes for Al, taking the shortest route out the front door to Rose's house next door and back, for Al to say he would not be there this morning. Jean Granger usually had a backup lesson for Rose for when Al was not there, and even had a couple of backup lessons for Al for the rare case when Rose was gone with her mother or less often her father and Al was over.

Harry and Al spent the rest of the day making fifty of the special mapping parchments.

Two days later the Level Three All Auror Alert was called, and Harry and all four of the other Aurors were on their way to Asia, to the Himalayan Mountains.

Harry arrived at a totally hidden village within sight of K-2, the second highest mountain in the world. There were a very large number of Aurors there, but to Harry's surprise there were also a modest sized contingent of Goblins, most of them armed with swords or wicked looking war hammers. There were also a fair number of Elves, most with the Magi but some with the Goblins.

"The Goblins and Magi around here are mostly allied with the Lord of the Dementors, Harry," Al VanLente said. "It really helps to have Goblins fighting Goblins, and helping us in the caves and tunnel that surround this area.

"What is this fight about?" Harry asked. "Have you captured the Magi involved in human trafficking?"

"We have rescued some of the captured people," Al said. "That is just the start of the evil going on around here, Harry.

"The Magi and Goblins around here have destroyed several of the close villages, and are threatening more. We need to map their hiding places and push them back. There is modest size battle going on here," and Al pointed out a place on the map. "We need you to map this area first," and Al pointed out another area.

Harry started to map tunnels and caves where Al had directed him. As soon as he did there were a large number of Dementors and a significant size group of Magi attacking. Shortly after the attack started some Goblins joined in the attack. Harry was reasonably well protected, but the attack continued. Finally Harry noticed a large number of Patronus fighting the Dementors, jointly led by a wizard and a Goblin with a wand. The Goblin with the wand had eleven Goblins with swords with him, and about six armed Elves. Two Goblins were injured. Each time one of the Elves would disappear with the wounded Goblin, and bring back a healthy Goblin to take his place.

Harry had Americus Tong, the best Chinese map maker, helping him. Americus said, "Your mapping papers are still better than mine. I would like to use only your parchments."

"I have fifty. I hope that is enough," Harry said.

Eventually someone had to go into a cave to map the rest of it, and before Americus went in there was a bloody battle, with significant causalities on both sides.

Towards evening there was a lull, and Al announced that they were going to hunker down until the next morning.

"Is there any chance of winning this battle?" Harry asked Al.

"We will have had a successful battle if we can map some of the hiding places of the supporters of The Lord of the Dementors," Al said. "We need to do a better job of keeping them under control."

"How long has this been going on?" asked Harry.

"The beginnings of this evil are lost in history, Harry," Al said. "I am not sure if the Lord of the Dementors is gaining power, or if he is just getting more desperate. The Magi around here say that there is a desperation and fury about the supporters of the Lord of the Dementors that they have not seen before.

"We feel we need to map the caves and tunnels around here before any big battle comes."

"Is there going to be a big battle around here?" Harry asked.

"Probably," Al VanLente said. "The Lord of the Dementors has one of the three original Crystal Balls, and we will not have full control of the magic of the Crystal Balls until all three are back under the control of The Witch and Wizard to come."

"And the Wizard to come is going to be a descendent of mine?" Harry asked.

"And the witch his wife, Harry," Al said. "You have skin in this game. It is your descendent that we are preparing to protect."

The next day Americus Tong had two assistants, as they pushed deeper into some caves and tunnels. They were not sending Harry into the tunnels; that was far too dangerous. They were beginning to run out of mapping parchments, and the mapping parchments that Harry and Albus made were far superior to any other mapping parchments.

Harry sent a Patronus to Al asking him to make twenty more mapping parchments, then another twenty, and keep making them until he was told to stop.. Then Al had to tell his mother, "Mum, dad asked me to make 20 more mapping parchments as soon as possible."

Ginny looked at her watch; it was lunch and everybody was over at the New Burrow for lessons in the afternoon. Ginny had seen Harry's stag talking to Albus, so she figured Al was telling the truth. She took Albus home, and before she let him go down to the potion room said, "You have to use a wand to make those parchments."

Al said, "Dad needs them. Maybe we should not talk much about how I am going to make them." Ginny let Albus go down stairs without saying anything else, but she worried. Albus for his part worried too. This was probably the most obvious case of breaking the rule against under age magic so far, using a wand, and for critical Auror business. He was going to have to give the parchments to someone, and not tell them how they were made. He did not think he was the only underage person practicing magic with a wand, but he sure felt alone. Maybe he was the only Magi in Britain, or even all of Europe, engaged in such egregious violations of the law. Well, his father Harry Potter had asked him to, and it was for a good cause.

When the parchments were done Albus had his mother get in touch with his father, and Harry had an Auror come over to the house to pick up the parchments.

The Auror said, "How come your father didn't take these with him?"

Al answered, "He was only asked to take fifty."

"How many more are there downstairs?" asked the Auror.

"You'll have to ask my dad that," said Albus. "Dad only allows me to say so much about the potions room and what goes on down there."

Al VanLente did ask Harry, "How did you get more mapping parchments so fast?" Harry said, "My son Albus has helped me make them, and he did these for me."

"I thought you had to use a magic wand to make the mapping parchments," said Al.

"Don't ask," said Harry. "Forget what I said, and don't ask. Be grateful we have the mapping parchments." Al did not ask Harry again, but he did not forget.

For the next week Albus made twenty of the mapping parchments in the morning, and another twenty in the afternoon. The same Auror was send back and forth with the mapping parchments. Ginny eventually had to buy more supplies to allow Albus to keep making the parchments.

It took a week and a half for the bulk of the dark wizards to be captured or killed, and they were sure many of them got away. Two of the Chinese Aurors were killed, even though they were wearing armor. Seven of the other Aurors, mostly local ones, none of them wearing armor, were killed. Of the well over one hundred Dark wizards, about fifty mostly lower lever wizards were captured, and about fifty were killed.

Most of the Dark wizards were, as far as Harry could see, wizards, and not witches.

Ten Goblins fighting alongside Al and the International Aurors were killed, but none of the ones guarding Harry. When a Goblin died his body disappeared. Goblins were very hard to capture.

Harry thought he recognized the Goblin with the wand. He asked, "Did I meet you in China, when we found that wand and Elfish wands?"

"Thorin Oakenwand, at your service, Harry," the Goblin said, bowing just enough to be polite without being subservient. "I have been at your pond with the Magi and Elves learning Elfish and other languages." Then very quietly he said, "Tell Albus hello from me, Thorin Oakenwand, and thank him for making the mapping papers. Subversive, very subversive."

Harry was not sure why having Albus making mapping papers was subversive, not subversive in the way Kreacher used to talk about it. He was worried that Thorin knew.

Harry showed up back at Grimmauld Place at 3:00 AM on a Tuesday morning. Ginny had slept reasonably well for Harry being gone, and was actually at a good point in her sleep cycle to be awake for an hour. Harry was tired, sore, and upset. He had been up for more than 24 hours, and the two days before had gotten about 4 hours of sleep a night. He had taken stay-awake potions, but he urgently needed to take the antidote and get to bed. Ginny went in the shower with Harry mostly to get him washed and make sure he did not fall asleep in the shower, and as soon as she could she got Harry into bed and let him fall asleep.

Usually Harry was the first to wake up, but this morning Ginny was awake first. She called Mitzi the house elf and had her get the children ready, and sent a text message to her mother and Audrey Weasley telling them that James and Lily would be coming over with Mitzi, that Harry had just gotten back and she needed to stay with him. By seven fifteen Ginny was back in bed, waiting for Harry to wake up.

Albus could probably function without anybody else there, thought Ginny. He will get up and eat breakfast and go over to Rose's house, no matter what. James will probably be all right too. He knows that if he gets his school work done he will have a chance to fly this afternoon. Merlin knows what Lily is wearing. Mitzi is good at almost everything else, but she has almost no control over what Lily wears, and given her own devices Lily usually wants to wear something inappropriate. If it's too bad grandma Molly will take her right back here and make her change, thought Ginny. Thanks mum, I'm not sure I could raise Lily without a little help from a lot of the family. Mom and Audrey will stay on Lily to get her school work done too.

Ginny looked at herself, and thought of the conversations with the healer. The healer pointed out that she was not really that insecure. She was just upset, and a little at odds, because her life was not quite like she had imagined it would be. Harry was the most faithful possible husband. She had a successful Quidditch career, and good career as a writer. She had even won the Order of Merlin 1st class! It was just that Harry knew what he was going to be doing for years, heading the Auror department, involved with the Wizengamot and the International Confederation of Wizards, and helping to manage the International Aurors Association. She wasn't sure what she wanted. She wanted to continue to write the Quidditch column, that she knew. Oh, she remembered, and she called the Prophet and told them that her Wednesday column might be ready Thursday instead, that Harry had just gotten back from an exhausting overseas assignment.

Where was she? Oh, what did she want, well besides the Quidditch column? Besides what she could not have, no scars inside or outside, back to her body as healthy as when she was playing Quidditch but 100 pounds so she would not be so skinny, with breasts a little more like Fleur than her two own perfectly adequate pair, and no little belly where the babies had gotten rid of her narrow waist. That's not very realistic. James was nine already! In less than two years he would be off to Hogwarts, and a year later Albus would go. Ginny was not really sure she was ready not to be a mother. Nursing felt really good. Little babies felt good. Hermione was more than willing not to be a mother again. She had made sure that Hugo was their last. Ginny was not sure. Besides if she got pregnant again there were potions and spells that would let her keep some of the increase in bust size, so she would be a little less cute, and a little more spectacular, just a little, because she was a little vain, and she liked being looked at. They noticed what she looked like in the papers, but more importantly Harry noticed.

Harry looked the same. He was waking up. They had sort of gotten control of his hair; well it was still all cowlicks and stuck up at odd angles but they had gotten it cut shorter, so it was about an inch on top and tapered down towards his sideburns, and looked a little less wild. It took some reasonably powerful barber spells to get the hair to obey, but they finally did it, sort of. Harry's dad had the same kind of hair, but Albus' hair was always neatly combed. At least her hair had not changed, but of course she went to the Cover Witch Cosmetics store and beauty salon once every other week to make sure the gray was colored. She did a Cover Witch Cosmetics spell every day to make sure the roots were colored. Harry's gray at the temples looked good. There was very little gray, just enough that he looked less like a young man not old enough to be head of the Auror Department.

"Good morning," said Harry. "What time is it?"

Ginny said "Just before 8:00 AM, and you have only had four hours of sleep. The children are gone and you are going to enjoy the day, and you are going to get plenty of sleep. You're going to get plenty of me today, too, because we both need it."

Harry went to the loo, shaved, and came back to bed. He and Ginny made love, and Harry almost immediately fell back to sleep. Ginny put on a nightgown, got her laptop, and went to work on her Quidditch column, sitting next to Harry on the bed and watching him sleep while she was writing. Harry woke up about noon; they made love again, and then came down for lunch. Ginny made lunch. Harry was still a little shaky. "Tough week and a half?" asked Ginny. "Tough, mentally and physically," said Harry.

"You have a good second in command, and you need to take advantage of it," said Ginny. "Unlike right after the Battle of Hogwarts, you can give yourself a day or two to recover. It's better for you, and it's probably better for everyone else in the Auror department too. I'm sure the four Aurors you had in Asia with you will have some time off."

"Two days at least, and the rest of the week preferably" Harry said. "I need to be in on Thursday, and we have a Wizengamot session on Friday, but today I'm yours."

"Me and the bed, Harry," said Ginny. "You still need some more sleep."

"No better way to get to sleep than to have a couple of hours of you first," said Harry with a lopsided grin on his face. Even with the spell for endurance, however, Harry was still exhausted. Less than half an hour into what could have been a two hour love fest Harry was asleep. Harry and Ginny were in a rather awkward position when Harry fell asleep. Ginny got them separated; if they had just been married it may have upset or concerned her, but after so many years of marriage she just enjoyed it. Ginny actually finished the Quidditch column that afternoon, and then went back to bed and lay next to Harry, just holding on to him lightly and enjoying the physical closeness.

By Thursday Harry was back to work and everything was back to normal. Harry and Albus talked a lot about what he had done, and the part the mapping program was playing in capturing dark wizards. At one point Albus said, "Did I do the right thing making the maps? I know that if the Department for the Regulation of Underage Magic knew I would be in big trouble."

Harry said, "Al, I really needed those maps."

"What would you have done if I could not make them for you?" asked Al.

Harry said, "I don't know. Maybe see if I could get somebody else to make them, or come back and make them myself. You were not the only way to get more mapping papers, just the quickest. At the time I needed them quickest was by far the best."

"But strictly speaking it was still illegal, or at least irregular," said Al. "How do I know if I can do something even if I am told not to do it, like disobeying all those laws and regulations when Tom Riddle was in charge?"

"How do you know the difference between right and wrong?" asked Harry.

"Is it always easy to know the difference?" asked Al.

"No," said Harry. "It's not always easy to know, and sometimes it is very important to know. Maybe that's why I go to church, and read about moral decisions, and think hard about some things."

"Are you ever wrong?" asked Albus.

"Yes, Al, I'm wrong sometimes. It feels real bad when you are wrong," said Harry, "but in many cases you can apologize, or you are wrong because you do not have all the facts but when you get all the facts you can change your mind and make a wrong right. What is worse is when there is no right decision. Sometimes you have to choose between something bad and something worse, and choosing something bad, even if it is better than the alternative, it still feels bad."

"Like when I killed that wizard who tried to kill me?" asked Albus.

"You did what you had to do, but to your credit you did not feel good about it," said Harry.

"Have you had to make that kind of decision, dad?" asked Albus.

"Yes," said Harry, "but I'd rather not talk about those things yet."

"I understand, dad," said Al. "I just want to be good, and the older I get the more complicated being good becomes."

"Do you know Thorin Oakenwand?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Dad," Albus said. "He is always with the Elves when we are studying."

"Do you know why he does not have a sword?" asked Harry.

"Yes," Albus said. "I promised Thorin I would not tell anyone else."

Albus knew he had to practice writing with quills on parchment. For the first two years all the Hogwarts students had to use quill pens, and hand write their assignments, although the upper grades were allowed to use the portable computers that were becoming so common in the world of the Magi. So Albus wrote to Teddy, who as a prefect had problems with a few students. Teddy wanted to make a map of Hogwarts, and Albus agreed to help teach him. That Christmas vacation they worked on the mapping a lot. Most of the time both of them were free Al and Teddy worked on mapping. What was great for Al was that Teddy could use a wand on the Potter property, so they mapped the entire Potter and Weasley and Longbottom and even the Lovegood property. When they had the map done they showed it to the house elf Sojourner. She was fascinated, and wanted a copy, which they gave her. "I wish I could tell what someone was doing, if they were working or not," said Sojourner.

Albus said, "The tapestry at our house shows what someone is doing!" So Sojourner went with Al and Teddy to Grimmauld Place, and looked at the map. Al asked his friend Martin if he knew any house elf who knew the magic to make the tapestry, and if they could use some of the same magic on the maps. Martin got his parents, and they got other house elves. There was a tremendous amount of discussion in elfish, and more elves were called in to look at the tapestry and parchment. Before they were done Aristotle had come over from Hogwarts.

Albus understood most of what was being said, but of course Teddy did not understand any of it. Finally, after everybody had left, Teddy asked Albus, "Well, what did they say. Can we duplicate the symbols?"

"That is a very good question," said Al. "A very good question. Right now, no, but later on, maybe."

"That's it?" asked Teddy.

Al looked puzzled, and it took him a while to sort of answer. "It's tied into some very old magic, and into the … I don't know how to say it … contract or magic or rules that house elves operate under. Some of it's hard to say in elfish, and you sure cannot translate it."

"Can you find out?" Teddy asked.

"I will try," Albus said.

Later Albus talked to Martin P/W, and his mother, Harriet P/W, about putting the magic that showed what a person was doing on the maps. Harriet Tubman P/W said, "We work on that after the holidays. Very difficult, very changing, very subversive."