PSYCHE
"Well. Ain't this a right ruckus".
Eyes slowly roaming the tightly-packed train station, Madam Amelia Bones; Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, let out a slow sigh and tapped her wand on the badge on her chest, holding it there for five long seconds before withdrawing it.
"Gentlemen, form a perimeter, I want a clear line of access from the train to both the King's Station entrance and the floo entrance," she ordered, already imagining the migraine she was sure to have by the end of today. "And someone find out what's going on here, I've never seen the Platform this crowded before, not even during the War".
"It's Harry Potter, Ma'am," Derek Lang, one of Amelia's favourite Aurors explained in a quiet whisper. "Rita Skeeter wrote a story about how it was his first year at Hogwarts this September, everyone's shown up see the Boy-Who-Lived".
Amelia needed only a moment's pause before she was nodding in agreement, "That would do it, I'd say," she announced as the backup she'd summoned came pouring through the floo behind her. "Well, let's clear a path for Mister Potter, should he not already be on the train. Any of mine I find failing their job and asking Potter for his autograph themselves will find themselves shucking out the department's stables by hand for a month," she added bluntly.
"The DMLE has a stables?" someone murmured behind her.
"I'll build some just for you, Weatherby," Amelia snapped, "Now jump to it!"
As her Aurors spread out through the crowd like water, guiding everyone into certain areas without needing her there holding their hands, Amelia took a moment to feel relieved that she'd sent her niece Susan to her friend's that morning. Hopefully the Abbott family kept up with their usual habit of arriving a full hour early, or Susan and Hannah would never get on the train before it left.
Shaking it off and jumping into action herself, Amelia helped her Aurors as they created a very clear fork in the platform, giving space for the startled young witches and wizards coming through to reach the train without being trodden on. Watching as an older wizard broke free of the crowd to dive at a dark-haired boy coming through the enchanted barrier, Amelia flinched as a loud crack sent the man flying, a darkly-glaring Lady Longbottom stepping through the barrier as well stroking her wand evilly. As one of her Aurors leapt forward to stun and bind the aggressive wizard without needing her to give the order, Amelia hid her sigh of relief as Lady Longbottom just nodded at her in approval before continuing to lead her grandson towards the train with a dangerous look in her eyes.
That was one scary woman, one that Amelia was not willing to get on the bad side of, Auror solidarity be damned.
"Uh… Madam Bones?"
Turning a narrow-eyed glare on the Auror who'd fallen out of formation, Amelia needed to do nothing more than raise an eyebrow and tighten her jaw before the young man started sweating nervously.
"My uh, my little brother's on the train," the Auror (Lucas Prince, she believed) stuttered out, "And I asked him to check to see if Potter was on board".
"Well?" Amelia pressed when Prince stopped talking and stared at her, "Get on with it!"
"He's not! He's not Sir, I mean Ma'am, Madam," Prince blurted, the fear clear in his eyes making Amelia feel both better about the situation and guilty for terrifying the poor boy. "John says he searched the entire train and Potter wasn't there, he even used 'Homenum Revlio' and he didn't show up".
Pulling her pocket watch from the inside of her robes, Amelia glanced down at the time before snapping it shut, making the blonde Auror flinch. 'Tell your brother to keep up the search," she instructed as she slipped her grandfather's watch back into her robes, "I want him to check every ten minutes. As for us, we will hold position until 1130 hours in case Mister Potter is late, then we will assume he acquired other transport to Hogwarts and will withdraw".
"But what if he's not coming?" Prince questioned hesitantly.
"Then that is a matter for the Department of Magical Education to deal with, not the Auror force," Amelia dismissed bluntly. While she personally hoped that Potter attended Hogwarts, having been good friends with both James and Sirius before the former's death and the latter's betrayal, it was neither her choice nor her business where his guardians chose to send him. Then again, unlike some Amelia was not obsessed with the legend of the Boy-Who-Lived, and she highly believed she'd be forced to respond to some crimes committed by those who believed that Harry Potter 'belonged' to Hogwarts.
Starting up a patrol to check over her Aurors as time ticked down, Amelia found herself beginning to doubt that Harry Potter would show up, watching the hands of her grandfather's pocket watch moving past 10:30, 10:45, and then finally 11:00 without even a glimpse of Potter's arrival. As the disappointed witches and wizards gathered on the Platform started to trickle away, unhappy murmurs echoing through the crowd, Amelia turned to face the train and caught the eye of Lucas Prince expectantly.
Nothing.
"Hold position until I give you leave to break it!" she snapped as she caught sight of one of her Aurors shifted uncertainly, "We will continue to guard this Platform until further notice!"
And that further notice came all too soon as she watched the time strike 11:30 without even a single black hair showing up. Silently offering up a plea that they were just overreacting and that Potter was already on the train happily making friends or was even already waiting for everyone else up at Hogwarts, Amelia Bones shook her head and tapped her throat with her wand, giving the simple order across the otherwise empty platform for her Aurors to stand down.
Little did she know how wrong she was.
"Madam Bones? You might want to come deal with this".
Sighing in relief as she looked up from her parchmentwork, Amelia set down her quill quickly and raised an eyebrow at her newest addition to her personal task force – 'Call me Nymphadora and I'll break you' Tonks – curiously.
"Rowle's getting mouthy with a Muggle-born again," Tonks explained bluntly, "And you know he won't listen to anyone but you".
Pushing herself out of her chair with a speed that betrayed her eagerness for anything that wasn't more reports, Amelia hurried around her desk and followed Tonks out of her office. "Give me the rundown," she ordered as they moved, the gathered Aurors looking relieved at the sight of her and quickly moving out of their way as they headed towards the interrogation rooms.
"We were following up reports of a potential 5-87 in Cardiff, Wales. Deputy Head Lang sent Rowle and myself out to deal with it, believing it to be a simple Muggle-baiting to help Rowle back on his feet after his suspension," Tonks responded immediately. "We managed to question the locals subtly and tracked the suspect to a Muggle apartment near Roald Dahl Plass".
"I'll take the full report later, skip ahead," Amelia interrupted quickly. While she appreciated Tonks' formal nature usually, going so far as beginning to subtly groom the potential-filled girl towards taking maybe even her job one day, this wasn't the time for a long drawn out report.
"I think it's a 7-69, Ma'am," Tonks simplified bluntly, "A Muggleborn that fell through the cracks. He's clearly magical and is clearly a very powerful Legilmens, I didn't even feel him enter my mind before he started call me Nym – that – and he seemed honestly surprised when he realised we were wizards. I instructed Rowle to bring him in, thinking truth serum would either send him to Azkaban or to Hogwarts. During the arrest the suspect went peacefully until Rowle started making comments about the suspect's heritage, I have reason to believe the suspect then proceeded to read Rowle's mind and start using the information he found there to strike back. I ordered Prince and Prince to guard the suspect and keep an eye on Rowle while I came to get you the moment he started talking about 'Mudbloods needing to be wiped out', as per your orders".
"Good work," Amelia praised curtly, not needing to see the blush on the young woman's cheeks to know that a simple 'Good work' was ten times better than any promotion to her.
"And if I don't know what happened?" an unfamiliar voice questioned smugly as Tonks pushed open the door.
Only needing a moment to take in everything that was happening in the interrogation room, Amelia cleared her throat loudly, watching as Aurors Lucas and John Prince tried to leap away from the suspect and stand at attention at the same time. (Those two were even more clumsy than Tonks pretended to be).
"Is there any reason for me to find one of my Aurors unconscious on the floor and another two physically abusing a suspect?" she growled out, watching as the two brothers paled and exchanged nervous glances. "I thought not, Auror Tonks, their wands and badges please".
Staring coldly as Tonks hurried to confiscate the newly suspended Auror's belongings, Amelia gave them a quick look that promised a lot of pain in their futures before ordering them into the interrogation room next door, Tonks leaving to escort them without a word.
"Is my Auror alright?" she asked slowly, staring down at the badges in her hands sadly. She had thought those two had potential, apparently not.
"He will be once he's had some sleep," a young voice responded, Amelia glancing over and almost double taking in shock. "And I'm not a 'kid'," the kid argued pre-emptively from where he was gracefully lounging in the chair like he wasn't bound to it against his will, "I'm sixteen".
Not reacting as another Auror came in to levitate Rowle's body out, refusing to make eye contact with either her or the smirking teenager, Amelia merely pulled out the chair opposite the boy and sat down calmly. Taking a slow breath as she made herself comfortable, honestly looking forward to interrogating a suspect again after all these years, she tightened her mental barriers and returned her attention to the boy opposite her, freezing seconds later as he raised an eyebrow expectantly.
Harry Potter.
The boy sitting opposite her, with a nice dark shiner coming in on pale skin and an utterly chaotic twinkle in his eyes was Harry James Potter; the Boy-Who-Vanished. She could see how at first glance she wouldn't recognise him, short black hair and green eyes weren't that uncommon after all, but it wasn't until facing him head on that Amelia saw James' jaw and Lily's nose.
"You know my parents?"
Blinking in shock at Potter's question, Amelia narrowed her eyes suspiciously as a question flittered across her thoughts.
"If I tell you the truth will you tell me about my parents?" Potter asked bluntly, making her hesitate before nodding in confirmation seconds later. "You're right, I read your mind, I've been able to do it since I was a kid," he admitted openly, crossing his arms and making Amelia start as she realised that sometime during his sentence the ropes binding his arms to the arms of his chair had snapped. "Now it's your turn".
"I worked with your father here, as part of the DMLE," Amelia answered without thinking, her mind too busy processing what she'd just learned. "I knew your mother through him, it was a tragedy when they both died".
Happening almost too quickly for her to catch it, those emerald eyes were clouded with a grief that vanished almost instantly, telling her that Pot- Harry didn't know about his parent's deaths.
"What do you know about me?" Harry asked after he'd composed himself.
Shaking her head, Amelia smiled simply at Harry who merely shot her an unimpressed look in return. "It's my question now," she corrected, "Where were you? We waited for you at Platform Nine and Three Quarters but you never showed up, then the Minister of Magic called us in a panic because Dumbledore had confessed you'd vanished from your safe house".
"Platform Nine and Three Quarters?" Harry echoed, looking confused. "And 'safe house'? I ran away from the Dursleys' because I had a better life on the streets than I had living with them," he explained, crossing one leg over the other elegantly. "I never received whatever 'letter' the other two were thinking about either, I never had any mail addressed to me before I moved into my flat in Cardiff".
Thankfully Harry didn't seem to want to pressure her into answering his own question immediately, because he allowed Amelia to sit there staring at him thoughtfully, trying to work what she had just been told into what she knew herself. Having been the one who'd cuffed the Dursleys and dragged them to Erago – the wizarding prison for muggles and squibs that knew about magic – herself, she unfortunately knew that Harry's comment about being better off on the streets wasn't exaggerated. She also knew that Dumbledore had been stripped of all his titles bar his role as Headmaster because of his screw-up of placing the Boy-Who-Lived with abusive muggles. And she – and she also knew that Harry was hearing everything she was thinking right then and there if the look in his eyes was any indication.
"You caught me," Harry said with a shrug, "Most muggles don't give the thought of real psychics even the benefit of the doubt, they always try to explain my successes away as either pure luck or me cheating".
"Psychics? The mind arts are rare among wizards," Amelia admitted slowly, "But not unheard of".
She and Harry stared at each other curiously before both opening their mouths to speak at the same time. "You first," she offered, nodding her head towards Harry who smiled thankfully in response.
"What happens to me now?" he asked making her freeze as the answer flashed through her mind – and thus through Harry's – before she could stop it. "I don't think so," Harry denied with a frown, shaking his head at her stubbornly, "I'm not going to this 'Hogwarts' place, and you can't make me".
"Unfortunately the laws are clear," Amelia admitted unhappily, "Either you pass your N.E. or your memories are wiped, your magic bound and your life turned upside down".
"Or," Harry began petulantly, "I could just do this".
And with that, Harry James Potter, the boy who had just waltzed back into the magical world by sheer accident, vanished into thin air with nothing but a faint rumble and a shimmer.
PSYCHE
So this one is an answer to my own 'Psyche' challenge – as implied by the name – that I thought it was about time that I wrote. I was in a good mood after finishing the 'Mr. Sparks' idea that I let my sleep-deprived imagination run wild, and this is the path that it decided to take for whatever reasons seemed logical to it.
Also, Madam Bones is a fun character to write, she's actually got a large part in my 'Ignition' story which wasn't actually planned.
PSYCHE