Chap. 52: Mundungus Fletcher, Thicknesse, the deal, Gringotts, Hogsmeade, caught again, and Madam Pomfrey.
Harry was just about to step out of Tonk's cubicle that Saturday morning, after speaking to her about Flint, when she spoke up in a low voice halting him in his tracks.
"Harry," Tonks muttered, "they brought Dung in."
"Did they, now?" Harry replied. "What's the charge?"
"Broke into a jewelry shop in the wizarding district of Bath."
Here, Harry paused for a moment and thought over what she told him before he replied. He was also Bath's representative at the Wizengamot as well, which gave him a reason to become involved.
"Hmmm, thanks for the heads-up, Tonks," Harry remarked before quickly leaving the Auror's bullpen. Here, however, Harry didn't head back to his office. No, he headed to the holding cells for those to be arraigned.
When Harry walked up to the window, the on-duty MLE officer, a young Slytherin named Ian Carmichael from Yorkshire, who was about Tonks' age, started to splutter before catching himself.
"L - Lord - Lord Potter," Ian stuttered, "wha - what brings you here, today?"
"I hear that you have some Dung in a cage, so I came to look at the spectacle myself."
This caused the young officer to finally chortle aloud. "Right you are, Lord Potter. Mundungus Fletcher was just booked, and he's awaiting his turn before the bench."
"Mind if I see him?" Harry inquired.
"No - no, not at all, sir," Ian replied as he motioned for the guard to open the door. However, when Harry made to hand him his wand, Ian quickly spoke up. "No need for that, sir, since you're one of us."
Harry thought about this for a moment, and then it hit him that he did, in fact, carry a badge, and he was, indeed, an Officer of the Wizengamot.
"Yes, yes," Harry replied as he stepped through the doorway and slid his wand back up his right sleeve. Next, he leaned over the desk and signed the log book, "which cell is he in?"
"Down at the end, My Lord," the jailer, Dougal Douglas, replied, "and in cell fourteen."
As Harry made his way down the corridor, he noticed that about half the cells were empty. The others, though, were occupied, where about half of them housed drunks recovering from the night before, and the others held petty thieves, etcetera, who scowled at him.
When Harry made it to cell fourteen, though, he had to laugh, as there sat Dung on his cot, and he was bowed over with his head held in his hands. There was also a smell of stale whisky and tobacco smoke emanating from the cell.
"I don't think praying will help you out, here, Dung," Harry dryly remarked.
The squat, bandy-legged man with long, straggly, ginger hair heard him, as his head shot up where he stared at the young Lord with his baggy eyes. Harry noticed that his face was still unshaven, and bloodshot from all the booze.
"'Arry?" Mundungus muttered, "wha' are you doin' 'ere? I expected Albus."
"Did you, now?" Harry questioned. "You know that the man is almost on his deathbed, Dung, yet you expect him to bail you out?" When Dung started to reply, Harry cut him off. "Listen, Dung," Harry said with a smile of shark-like teeth, "I'm prepared to cut you a deal if you play along nicely."
"A deal, you say," Dung replied as he leaped from his cot and grabbed the bars of the cell. "What sorta deal are ya speakin' of?"
Here, Harry's wand shot into his hand, and he cast a privacy ward.
"I don't understand how this gutter snipe can be of any benefit to us," Pius Thicknesse complained while standing behind the two-way mirror that showed the interrogation room.
"I'll offer him a job that he can't refuse, Pius," Harry said as they watched Tonks bring Dung into the room on the other side of the glass. "Have you got the contract and quill?"
"Yes," Pius groused, as he sat them in front of Harry on the table. "I had Mundungus dead to rights, you know, plus, you might just be interested in what he had rattling around in his suitcase."
"Suitcase?" Harry questioned.
"Here," Pius said as he slid the suitcase over to Harry, and with a quick twitch of Pius' wand, it opened. "Inside."
Harry opened the suitcase's top, and stared at all the trinkets, jewelry, and silver inside. Finally, his eyes rested on several fifteenth-century goblin-wrought silver goblets, which were embossed with the Black family crest.
"That fekin' little thievin' shite," Harry muttered as he withdrew one of the goblets and slammed it down with a clang on the table. "I've got him by the short and curlies, now."
"So, I can prosecute him, then?" Pius questioned.
When Harry looked over at the tall and thin man's beady eyes, who was the Head of the DMLE, he still thought his head reminded him of a crab hiding under a rock over his protruding brow. His brother was close to the same, Harry also thought.
"No," Harry said to Pius' surprise, "but this does give me a lot of leverage over him; more than I actually had. If he thinks that he was beholding to Dumbledore beforehand, then he hasn't seen anything, yet."
Here, Harry snatched up the goblet, contract, and blood quill, where he stormed out of the viewing room, and into the interrogation room.
When Harry stormed into the room, with the door banging loudly behind him, Mundungus looked surprised, and then frightened, when Harry slammed the silver goblet down in front of him and gave him a scowl.
"I - I can explain..." Dung stuttered just as Tonks noticed the goblet.
"Is that our family's silverware?" Tonks asked in a high-pitched voice while staring at the goblet.
"It is, Tonks," Harry said as he took a seat, "and he took several other items by the looks of it."
"Bu - bu - but...," Dung continued to stutter.
"Oh, this far surpasses a misdemeanor, Dung," Harry remarked. "No, this is grand larceny, a felony, since what you took was worth more than two-hundred galleons. Now, what to do with you?"
"I - I - I..., I was drunk, and needed some quick dosh!" When Harry didn't look impressed, Dung hung his head, and with a sigh, he asked, "What do you want?"
"You, Mr. Fletcher, are going to work for the Ministry to pay off your debt," Harry stated.
"WHAT!" Dung shouted with a scandalized look. Tonks didn't look much better, since her eyes looked like they were thinking of leaving their sockets.
"You heard me," Harry deadpanned. "What you are going to do, is train eight wizards in the art of being a dodger." When Harry noticed that Dung was going to interrupt, he glared at the man, who closed his mouth with a loud "clack."
"You will teach them everything, from the art of pickpocketing, safe cracking, ward and alarm dismantling, to breaking and entering; including how to use burglar's tools, and where to obtain them. You'll also teach them how to fence items, and you will introduce them to the right people in the black market and underground."
Now, Dung was staring at Harry slack-jawed before he shook his head. "An' what, exactly, do I get for me troubles, eh?"
"You'll get to not spend thirty years in jail, because, Dung, I am the only person, at this moment, that stands between you and Pius Thicknesse, who is ready to charge you on multiple counts of theft and B & E leading to a felony conviction.
"No, you'll sign the contract that is laying on this table with a blood quill, and then, you will work for me until I state otherwise. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"
"You - you're not like James and Sirius at all, are you?" Dung remarked.
"No," Harry coldly replied as he slid the contract over to the thief, "I'm more like my grandfathers."
Mundungus gulped and picked up the pen, as Tonks looked on who was shocked to her core.
Harry had just signed off on Dung's release papers, where he, along with Tonks, Moody, and Savage, were now making their way to the lifts. Just before that, he had sent his Patronus off to his wife to tell her that he was running late, and to wait for him at the Three Broomsticks.
"I want to know something, Potter," Moody growled, "why did Magical Maintenance just put a bloody brass plaque on my office door, which says it's now Department 13?"
Harry quickly looked around for eavesdroppers before he cast a privacy charm at this.
"Yes," Harry said, "you need read into the program, Moody, don't you? Congratulations on your promotion, by the way, as you just became the director and only employee of that department."
"Whatta ya gettin' at, boy?" Moody growled, again, making Harry smirk.
"You, Alastor," Harry explained, "are the ninth piece of eight; the invisible piece. You are the director of the Pieces of Eight, and their Captain will answer to you."
"Yes, I overheard you and Rufus mutterin' about 'pieces of eight,'" Moody groused. "What is it, something to do with findin' buried treasure?"
"No, Alastor," Harry said as the lift doors shut, "they are, technically, a private investigative and security company that is actually run by the ministry."
"Never heard of them," Moody remarked, "and I know of no group that does that for the Ministry."
"That's because they haven't been recruited, yet," Harry explained just as the doors reopened, and they began making their way out into the atrium.
"Well, what's to come?" Moody asked.
"I'll tell you about that once we make it to Gringotts," Harry replied, just as he rattled the items in Mundungus' old suitcase for Moody to hear.
"Why wasn't that placed in the evidence room?" Moody questioned.
"Because," Harry deadpanned, "things have a way of sprouting legs, and walking out of there, I hear."
From here, the four apparated to Diagon Alley and made their way to Gringotts, where they were now boarding a cart to travel down to the Black family vault.
"You and Dung," Harry said while looking over at Moody, who had just sat down, "will train the lot in everything clandestine and underhanded that you can think of."
"WHAT!" Moody roared just as the cart took off, which made the old Auror grab hold of the thing for dear life. Harry only laughed.
Here, Moody's eye spun in its socket, and he shouted out, "Ya cheeky little shite!"
As the four were now making their way down the flagstone streets of Hogsmeade, Tonks was studying her old mentor.
"You look a little green around the gills, Mad-Eye."
This, of course, brought chortles from both Harry and Savage.
"Aye," Moody grumbled, "I don't enjoy those cart rides."
"Here," Harry said, who handed Moody a silver flask that had his initials engraved on it.
Moody quickly unscrewed the cap and gave the contents a sniff. "Brandy?"
"Cognac, actually," Harry replied as Moody quickly put the flask to his mouth, and drank half of it in one go."
When he handed it back to Harry, the young mage eyed the old man. "You're bound to be an alcoholic, Moody. That was four ounces in one swallow."
All Moody did was to give a little shiver all over, lick his lips, and then grin at Harry. Tonks and Savage gave out a laugh at this.
"What is keeping Harry?" Daphne remarked.
"Well," Tracey said, "he did say that he would be late. Something important, wasn't it?"
"That's what worries her," Astoria replied, which caused Daphne to stick her tongue out at her sister. Tracey sniggered.
"Mind if I join you, ladies?" Harry said.
"Oh, hello, Higgs," Tracey said with a raised eyebrow. Daphne was studying the young wizard as well.
"Please, do," Astoria replied, who then patted the chair's seat beside her.
Once Harry was seated, he had a good view of the front of the Three Broomsticks, where he caught sight of four people entering the pub. "Is that Harry?"
Tracey and Astoria's eyes quickly snapped toward the door, and Daphne turned in her chair. Sure enough, it was her husband, and he had company. Once Harry spotted her, she smiled and stood.
"Darling, you're late!" Daphne complained before wrapping her arms around Harry's neck and giving him a long kiss.
Tonks, who was staring at the spectacle, cleared her throat, which made Daphne release her husband.
"Hello, Tonks," Daphne said as she quickly hugged the young Auror.
"Well, hello to you, too," Tonks replied. "Care if we all have a seat?"
"No, of course not," Daphne said just as Harry held her chair out for her.
Once everyone was seated, Daphne looked over at Moody. "Hello, Professor."
"Now, lass, I wasn't really ya professor, was I?"
"No," Daphne replied, "I guess not. Who is sitting beside you, if I may ask?"
"This is Auror Savage," Harry replied before Moody could, since he was now turned to order their drinks, so Daphne shook the man's hand across the table.
"Hello, Harry," Harry said with a nod.
"And hello, Harry, to you, too," Higgs replied with a smirk. Astoria snorted, and gave the younger Harry a swat on his shoulder, which made Harry and Daphne raise their right eyebrows and give each other a questioning look. Here, Tonks bumped her shoulder against Daphne's, gaining her attention, and then gave the younger Harry a look as well.
At one o'clock, Harry and Daphne slipped off from the rest and apparated to Black Manor, where the two made their way inside to visit with Bathilda.
At three, the two made their excuses about sorting Daphne's clothes for school and made their way upstairs, where Harry brought up the silencing ward on their room, which he had placed on it that week.
"I can't believe that Astoria," Daphne said with a huff, "has been secretly seeing Higgs behind my back!"
"He's an okay bloke in my book, dear," Harry said as he asked Kreacher to bring them two fizzy drinks from the icebox.
"Well, yes, I'll give him that," Daphne said, who, with a wave of her wand, caused the bed pillows to rise, and the duvet and sheets to fold down, where she sat on the edge of the bed and started undoing the buttons on her blouse.
"You seem to be in a hurry, dear," Harry replied as he was undoing his cufflinks.
"I'm randy, Harry, and can't help it. Plus, Uncle Red just left for the month."
"Is that so," Harry said with a smirk, as Daphne was now wiggling out of her skirt.
"Yes," Daphne replied, "and we'll have to make it a quickie, so I can make it back to school at a decent hour."
"A quickie, you say," Harry muttered as he was undoing the buckle on his belt.
"Yes," Daphne replied while now wiggling out of her panties, "hard, hot, and fast."
"I think that I can accommodate you, my dear," Harry said as he crawled into bed.
Daphne turned, smirked, launched herself onto the bed, and then sat straddle of Harry. "My dear husband," Daphne remarked as she let her hair down, "I'm going to rock your world."
Harry could have sworn that his heart had just skipped a beat.
There was a pop, Daphne shrieked while covering her breasts, and Harry rose up onto his elbows.
"Does the good Mistress Daphne and Good Master Harry bes needing anything else?" Kreacher asked as he sat the two cans of fizzy drink down on the bedside table next to Harry.
Harry roared out with laughter.
"I swear, Harry, if it's not Winky, it's Kreacher!" Daphne exclaimed with a blush as Harry was walking with her to her common room.
"I know, I know, dear," Harry replied with a grin, "but you have to admit, it was quite comical. Kreacher wouldn't even look at us as he sat those drinks on the table. Very professional, he is."
"Oh, you utter lout," Daphne said with a pout as she swatted her husband on the shoulder, causing him to chortle out loud. "Here we are, dear."
"Yes," Harry said as he stared at the blank stretch of stone wall, "I know, and I'm going to miss you until next Saturday."
"I will you, too," Daphne replied as she stood on the tips of her toes, and gave Harry a kiss. "Going straight home?"
"No, dear," Harry said, "I'm going to visit Poppy before supper and ask her about a live-in aide for Bathilda. You heard the old gal; she wants to return to her home, but she needs help."
"Well," Daphne said after whispering the password, which caused the wall to open up into a passage, "you better go before it's too late."
"I'll talk to you later, tonight," Harry said as he gave Daphne another quick kiss, and turned to leave. Daphne watched him until he turned the corner before she entered her common room.
Harry quickly made his way up the stairs in a bit of a jog and kept going until he reached the first floor, where he slowed down while trying to catch his breath.
As he made his way down the hall, and past a few classrooms, he found himself standing in front of the swinging doors leading to the hospital wing. Here, he composed himself and entered. When Pomfrey noticed him while treating a young wizard over bubotuber pus exposure on his hands, she almost dropped the unguent she was applying.
"Harry?"
"Hello, Madam Pomfrey," Harry replied. "When you have a minute, I'd like to have a quick word about my, er, guest."
Pomfrey's eyes widened at this, but she nodded at the young Lord.
"Head into my office, Harry, and I'll be with you in a moment."
Harry gave the matron a nod and opened the door to her office, where he found himself a seat in front of her small desk. He just hoped that she knew of a good and trustworthy aide, with medical experience, to take care of Bathilda, since he and his wife had already decided on footing the bill for someone to move in and take care of the elderly witch.
A/N" So, the drama continues as Harry starts their new clandestine group. Thanks, everyone, for the reviews!