A/N: I'm excited to upload this chapter, this is where the real meat of the story begins, and where we get our first real (almost) glimpse of the villain.
Harry awoke to the sun beaming into his window, and quite possibly the most excruciating headache he had ever experienced. This was quite impressive to Harry, as his scar had brought with it some extraordinary headaches in his youth.
"Oh good, you're awake." Ginny said, she obviously hadn't gotten up yet either. "One of us has to go pick up Lily."
Harry groaned, "Can't Molly keep her for a little while longer?"
Ginny laughed, "She'll probably keep her for as long as we like, but the odds of us ever getting her back grow smaller by the minute." She shoved Harry, nearly causing him to fall out of the bed, "and you're still dressed from last night, so you can just go without having to get ready."
She was right, Harry hadn't been alert at all upon his arrival in his bedroom, so he never changed out of the clothes he had been wearing the day prior. "Okay, but if I go get her, you get to make breakfast." At this, Ginny made a face.
Harry made his way to the fireplace, after noticing his shirt wasn't remotely clean enough even to visit the Burrow, changing, and brushing his teeth. Once he had flooed into the Burrow, he was instantly greeted by the sounds of children playing, much too loudly in Harry's estimation. Molly Weasley walked into the sitting room and saw Harry standing in the middle of the room wincing at the sound. "Harry, dear!" She exclaimed, but when she saw Harry's reaction to the sound of her voice she lowered it. "Sorry, dear, I didn't realize. Have you had breakfast?"
"Not yet, but Ginny's cooking as we speak, I think." Harry said. Truthfully, he didn't think he could stomach anything at the moment so he was hoping that his wife wasn't cooking at all. "I imagine Lily has no intention to come home yet." She never wanted to leave when there were other children at the Burrow, and during school there were always other children at the Burrow.
Molly laughed, "I'm sure she'll come willingly, after you bribe her." Lily had figured out very early that her father was more than willing to bribe her with sweets and toys to get her to cooperate. This time he preempted the situation by offering the bribe straight away.
"If you come home with me without giving me trouble, we'll go to Honeyduke's tomorrow and you can get whatever you want." This was his go to move when he didn't want to deal with Lily complaining and crying before going home. She complied instantly, and Harry left the Burrow with his daughter in near record time.
After a nap on the couch, Harry woke in a much better mood than he had been earlier in the day. He woke up this time to the smell of what he guessed was a very large lunch. He walked into the kitchen to find his wife and Claire smith working hard on two different dishes. Kayla, however, was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a glass of wine. Harry, who now felt hungrier than he could ever remember being at the Dursley's, grabbed a particularly large piece of roast from a pot that seemed to be in Ginny's section of the kitchen and tore into it.
"Someone's hungry," Ginny said, laughing.
Harry nodded, "Thirsty too," He poured himself a glass of water, drained it in three swallows, and poured another. "I'm going to have to go to the school today. I seem to have forgotten all of the papers I have to grade this weekend."
"Can't imagine why," Claire said, chuckling "You two were in rare form last night."
"Yeah, sorry about that." Harry said, embarrassed, "I guess we should've warned you before we…"
Kayla finished his sentence for him, "Got hammered and arrived at four in the morning, yelling at someone named Stan."
"Stan?" Harry asked, he remembered taking the Knight bus to get home, but he didn't remember yelling at the conductor. He composed himself, and decided staying in the room with all the women that seemed intent on spending the day tormenting him would be foolish. So, he took his leave, and flooed to Hogwarts, where he planned to spend the day grading his third years' papers on Grindylows. It was to Harry's great dismay when he arrived in his office to a large amount of commotion. James and Fred were obviously attempting to prank him by leaving one of the instant floods inside his office, but his arrival had spooked them, causing the flood to be activated prematurely. His office was underwater within seconds. He knew that it was only an illusion, but that didn't change the panic he felt when he first saw the water rising. He swam down, toward the door, and opened it. Upon swimming out, his entire body was instantly dry and he waited for his son and Fred to join him.
To their credit, they stayed inside the office for an impressive amount of time. Harry assumed that they were waiting for him to cool down, but he wasn't angry. Mostly, he was irritated that he couldn't get to his papers without swimming to them. He had tried to summon them, but to no avail. He decided to spend his time plotting his revenge. He was pondering the likelihood of him being able to enlist his wife's help in pranking their firstborn son, when none other than Arthur Weasley came swimming into view.
Arthur swam out of the door, and landed much more gracefully than Harry had. "Goodness, Harry, your office is a…"
"Fishtank?" Harry asked, amused at the look on his father in law's face. "Yes, my son decided to attempt to prank me over the weekend, no doubt spurred on by his success on the quidditch pitch. His confidence seems to have failed him though, as he has not decided to come out so far." Harry looked Arthur for a moment and realized he must have a better reason for coming to Hogwarts with no warning than just to inspect the state of his office. "What do you need, Arthur?"
Arthur looked uncomfortable as he spoke, "Well, we have a bit of a situation at the Ministry."
"What kind of situation?" Harry asked, skeptically.
"I think it would be best to show you, it's really quite strange." Arthur said. Harry agreed to accompany him to the ministry. They left through another office, as Harry's was still underwater. Harry did place a spell on the door, sealing the two boys inside his office. House elves would bring them lunch if they hadn't had it, and if they got lucky, a particularly friendly one might help them escape.
When they arrived at the staff entrance of the ministry, Harry's credentials still worked as it turned out, he could tell that something was afoot. Usually, the entrance to the Ministry was always busy, but today it seemed that all of the action was happening just outside. Harry followed Arthur to the front of the crowd, where Hermoine stood face to face with a man with a face Harry recognized. Standing across from Hermoine, behind a shield that the ministry workers had clearly given up on dismantling, was Zach Findlay.
"Oh good, the man we've all been waiting for." Zach said, "Now we can get started." Harry realized that, clearly, the man inside the shield hadn't spoken much before this moment. Everyone in the crowd seemed genuinely surprised that he moved at all, much less spoken.
"I assume you're talking about me, and not my father in law. If not, this moment is going to be singularly embarrassing." Harry said, the tip of his wand resting on the palm of his hand, obscured by the sleeve of his coat. He walked up to the shield and gestured to him, "Why don't you come out, have a chat?"
"Oh, I can talk just fine from in here, thanks." Zach said.
No, not Zach, he just looks like him. "Well then maybe you could just show us your real face?" Harry asked, knowing it wasn't likely.
"Oh, how clever of you to figure out who I really was," the imposter said, sarcastically. "However, I regret that I can't show you my true face just yet, especially not in front of all of these fine people. You see, I'd hate to have to kill so many people before lunch."
"Well you're obviously not here to have any sort of cooperative conversation, so what do you want?" Harry asked.
"I just wanted to meet the wizard so intent on foiling my plans." The imposter said, smiling, "I wonder, what would it take to get you to hand over the Americans?"
"I'm afraid I don't have any Americans to hand over at this particular moment. I'll be sure to let you know if I find any though." Harry replied.
"Come on, Harry. We both know that isn't true. Are you really willing to risk your family, simply to play the hero? I heard you were smarter than that." At those words, Harry dropped his friendly façade.
"If you touch anyone in my family again, I will.." The imposter had raised his wand, and Harry was unable to complete his sentence.
"Now, now, we don't want you to go making threats that we both know you can't make good on. Can't we just have a civilized conversation?" He dropped his wand and Harry could speak again.
"What do you want?" Harry snarled.
"I thought we were past this. I want you to hand over the Americans, or just one of them, really." The imposter said, adding, "I've been hunting a very specific group, if you didn't know already, and only one of them remains. I had thought to use his wife to lure him to me, but she seems to be averse to the idea of luring her husband into my grasp, even if it would mean her freedom."
"She wouldn't work with you? I can't imagine why." Harry said, some of his composure returning.
"I'm getting bored with this conversation, and I can see it's going nowhere. So, I'll get to the point. You have two options, hand over Tyler to me and I leave the country, and your family, alone." He paused for a moment, "Or, you can attempt to keep him from me, and I will kill everyone and everything that stands in my way. Including your daughter, Lily's her name, isn't it?"
"You told me what you want, but not why. Why?" Harry asked, ignoring the comment about his daughter.
The imposter laughed, "Isn't it obvious? It's fun." And with that, the shield shimmered and disappeared, alongside the man inside. The voice, however, continued. "You have three days." Harry was left, along with the rest of the Ministry, staring at the place where he had once stood. In the air, hanging just where his face had been, was a clock, and when the last word rang out, it started counting down.