Chapter 6: Godric's Hollow

"That corrupt jackanap is getting off Scott Free!"

Tonks rubbed her right ear a little bit with practiced hand. Moody was ticked. Someone had beaten him and from the look of things. It wasn't a practiced criminal which would only serve to make Moody that more desperate to track said criminal down. But to top it off they weren't even getting the biggest prize of the raid.

"James Brodie, is pleading innocence based on the Imperious Curse."

"Madam Bones, you know that there is no-"

"Auror Tonks, it's not that I don't believe you and I do believe the bugger is guilty. But we have no way to get him convicted." Explained the monocled woman behind the desk.

"Well whose backing him, then? I'll go have a conversation with them and we'll be back in business." Stated Moody.

"You can't use that tack. Not this time. Too many people got falsely convicted by Crouch and the public doesn't want it to happen again." Stated the tall Welsh Auror back to Moody with a look of exasperation.

"Okay then! Madam B. What do we need to do then?" Asked Tonks.

"Catch the one who got away. Brodie and the rest of the gang's defense is that he was the ringleader who Imperioused them and since he managed to beat a highly decorated auror. Their argument has a little more weight to it." Explained Madam Bones with a look of annoyance.

"He got lucky. So why can't we use that I'm not above failure to counter their stupid argument?" Snapped Moody who was fiddling with his wand. Which was never a good sign. Tonks knew from hard earned experienced.

"Because somewhere your testimony got lost in the shuffle and switched out!" Said Madam Bones, "Whoever was running Brodie and his little gang probably exercised Vassal Services to compel someone to switch it out."

Moody bellowed, "If were going to play by outdated laws. I'll just challenge the Brodie to a duel on behalf of the Moody's honor. I'll have him singing before he gets a spell out. Then I'll track down the last lawbreaker." The auror spun walking to the door working his arm a little with a grin of anticipation. No doubt planning on making Brodie sing soprano.

"You'll have to catch the lawbreaker first, Moody." Said Madam Bones as she rubbed her head trying to dispel her headache.

"Why! The men were likely preparing potions for impersonation and seduction. Most likely for the purpose of kidnapping and human trafficking! Or something worse. Why can't Moody apply the pure blood laws in our favor while they get to apply a law that's let far more gits like Malfoy walk free then innocent man!" Yelled Tonks.

"You know why, Auror." Said Madam Bones with a shake of her head.

Moody slammed his hand on the doorjam with frustration. Before turning to Madam Bones.

"Brodie is still suspended pending investigation isn't he?" He asked.

"Aye, He is. And its a good thing otherwise you and Tonks might send him to St. Mungo's daily for the next week. Rufus is bringing the paperwork in right now." Said Madam Bones as two of her top three aurors trooped out of the room.

"Tonks! Alistair!"

Both Aurors paused at the doors and looked back at her. Moody's face conveying bitterness and frustration. While Tonks more youthful only showed anger and determination.

"Get the last one. Then we can throw Brodie and the rest of them into Azkaban." Said Madam Bones.

Both aurors nodded before they walked out the door. Both looked as if they were looking forward to this hunt. Rufus Scrimgeour squeezed past them into Madam Bones office.

"Here's the paperwork on Brodie. Hopefully their will be a mistake somewhere but I doubt it." Said the short broad man with a mane of hair.

"So do I, Rufus. But I doubt it." Said Madam Bones before she slammed the door shut behind Scrimgeour.

"I want you to help Tonks and Alistair out as much as you can. And tighten up security on the rest of the department. Hopefully we can prevent some more freelancing from the rest of the office." Ordered Madam Bones.

"Anything else, Amelia?" Asked Scrimgeour. The redhead shook her head with a sigh.

"Nope, Hopefully we can get this other criminal. It would be nice to get at least one of the actual criminals that we haul in."

Two Weeks Later

Harry James Potter wiped his eyes with a cloth as he stirred the mass in the cauldron beneath him. It was weird how picking up a basic chemistry book had helped him out with his potions. That and the other thing as he could feel the magic from the various ingredients circulating around the cauldron.

For the past month he had been plague with headaches and body aches. It took the reading of multiple books he had purchased in a disguise from Borgins and Burkes. He had scoured multiple books before he came across the brother wand cores. Based on the event that he had experienced against Wormtail. He had fought in a duel that had connected his phoenix and Holly wand to its pass self. Somehow in that state his mind probably connected somehow with his pass wand.

The problem now was it felt like someone had taken the shoes off his feet and forced him to run around on glass. Initially he couldn't feel much. But know with a little concentration he could sense magic around him with a high degree of detail.

The biggest problem was he could barely understand any of that detail to even know what he was looking at half the time. Which had brought him to his current dilemma.

In the process of going over his old school books and his homework for the summer he had become quite the local celebrity in the magical world. He hadn't meant to knock a senor Auror unconscious or even to help bring down a gang that was smuggling potions. But the end result was the same.

The aurors were after him with a passion and wizarding world was unwittingly taking bets on his potential failure again.

He had dodged and ran away from the auror named Moody at least a half-dozen times in the past ten days and he kept on running into his partner. The woman Moody would call Tonks. Fortunately, he had done better. Primarily because he had developed better escape plans.

But the big one was surveillance. He could hear the hissing from around the small room he was using in the dilapidated flat he was hiding inside of. A snake pushed his head out of a hole in the wall before hissing at him.

Some human comes up the west stairwell, speaker.

Harry nodded as he bottled the completed potion. It was one that he was planning on submitting to the inspection of an old potion master in Diagon Alley named McNearly. The old man was old but didn't seemed to mind if Harry came into his shop or asked questions about his work. He still wondered at the last thing McNearly had said to him.

"Mr. Potter. It's the very least I can do for you. Not just because of what you did about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. But more importantly because of what your parents did for me."

If there was one thing, he would fight everyone for. It was for more knowledge of his parents. Plus, getting a professional to look at his homework for free didn't hurt either.

Harry pulled open a box from his pack as called the snakes to him. And they came. Hissing, slithering, and steady maneuvers as the rope like predators slid into the room. From the ceiling to the floor. Out of vents and walls. Under doors and beds. All fifteen of them came.

Harry nodded at the snakes as he dumped a wrapped parcel from the box onto the floor. The parcel squirmed with movement as it hit the floor. The parcel came alive as mice rushed to escape only to go into the jaws of death. Harry shook his head as his stomach turned as the snakes pounced on the mice as threw another parcel to the floor.

leave before the other human gets here Harry warned.

We will be gone, speaker. But let us know if you wish us to watch other humans. This is a far easier way to hunt. Hissed a black adder with two prominent bulges in his body.

Harry walked out of the east stairwell as the other person came up. It was easy to pay the snakes. Use some of the monster books provided by Hagrid for information on acquiring food for his carnivorous 'Magical Beasts'. A charm in one place attracted the rats and mice in Diagon Alley like birds to nests. And into his box they went, all ready to feed his predatory surveillance teams.

"Knight Bus!" Yelled Harry holding his captured wand up as he pulled a working hat low over his eyes.

The Knight Bus got him to the Leaky Cauldron in about five minutes of near disastrous accidents. He paid Stan Shunpike extra. The tip generally made the talkative man slightly less talkative. But not talkative enough until he forgot who paid him the tip.

He stepped through the dingy tavern pointing his wand at his head as he muttered an obsolete hearing spell.

"I akoí epekteínetai."

Harry began hearing the whispers of snakes as he walked quietly through Diagon Alley and everything else as folk whispered and schemed. His bulky jacket, purchased under the pretense of working for a small fishing company had paid off with the Dursleys and also the magical world in keeping away unwanted attention.

Human watcher ahead in your tongue, speaker

Harry grinned. Snakes rarely used phrases that he understood being so focused on the hunt in which their smell and taste were more prominent. For him though it just meant that the humans most likely were Aurors that he was about to walk into.

He felt the magic ahead with a little concentration as he walked past the point where Moody waited in shadows. Harry walked alongside a taller man going in the same direction. The Auror was studying him with his eye tracking his movements.

"Stop. Pretend you're not hiding and pull out your map." Harry thought.

He pulled out the real map that he had ordered out of Paris through public Owl Carrier as he stopped to look around as the man he hid behind kept on walking toward the Apothecary. He felt Moody's weird eye slide off him as he started walking again as he passed a hidden Tonks up on a roof top studying the alleyway. He marched quickly once out of sight of all prying eyes toward McNearly's Brewers Shop which was located well pass the entrance to Knockturn Alley.

He stepped into the door and saw Otto McNearly helping a younger man who looked vaguely familiar. The white headed old man saw him before responding.

"I will be with you in a moment, sir."

"Now then, Mr. Fawley. Complete that stirring exercise till you can do it with your eyes close. You shouldn't have any more problems with your potion exam." Explained McNearly as he handed a piece of parchment to the brown haired man who thanked him profusely before heading out the door.

"Now then Si- Mr. Potter!"

"Hey, Mr. McNearly, I was just hoping to get your opinion on this potion I brewed." Explained Harry as he held up a flask containing his potion.

"Of coarse, Lad. Let me have a peep and what potion is this supposed to be?" asked the potions master.

"Dragon Dung Fertilizer." Answered Harry as he handed a bag over to the McNearly.

"Well, your potion looks good. What's in the bag?" Asked McNearly as he weighed the bag in his hand.

"A couple more potions I was hoping to get your help with." Answered Harry.

"Harry, I do run a business. I'll take a look at them when I have time. Beside what are you really trying to get from me?" Asked the balding old man with sly smile.

"What makes you think I want something? "Asked Harry innocently.

"Because your still around. I was married to a Slytherin for forty-four years. I can tell when someone is fishing around for something." Answered McNearly as he set the potions in a reinforced stone vault before rolling a stone over it.

"What do you mean, when you said you owed my Parents?" Asked Harry impatiently.

"They helped me build this Brewery for general potions. I had been trying for twenty years to start a place when your Mother showed up. Her soon to be husband, your father, agreed to finance the place with a fair loan." Explained McNearly.

Harry nodded his head a little confused but still glad to get some information before his curiosity got the better of him.

"Why couldn't you build the business yourself? Your good at potions and you mentioned that you helped the Ministry on occasion. So why would you need my parents help?" Asked Harry.

"They helped me when no one else would." Answered McNearly before he continued, "Harry, if you want find out about your parents you to go to your home."

"My Home?" Asked Harry in confusion.

"Godric's Hollow, you will get better answers about your family than I can give you." Answered the man as he turned out a new cauldron to start some Purging potion.

"Why is everyone so roundabout when it comes to my family?" Asked Harry.

"I can't answer for everyone, lad. It could be a variety of things but you should get to know them for yourself. Look them up. Talk to people who knew them. Form your own opinion and not one based upon some idea everyone tells you without checking it first." Explained McNearly.

"McNearly!" Yelled a bellowing voice from the door as Alistair Moody stomped inside.

"What Alice!" Yelled McNearly back at the old auror.

"Stop calling me that! Do you have any information about that numb scull I'm tracking." Demanded the Auror as Harry slipped out of the room with a muttered 'Thank You, sir' to McNearly.

"Only that some people in the criminal underworld are calling him 'The Shadow'." laughed McNearly.

"The Shadow! I'll bury that little fence hopping coward! Who told you anyway." Asked Moody as Harry slipped away again. Not noticing the magical eye that followed him as he left.

Guided by the sounds of the snakes he left Diagon Alley, Undetected.

"Mum, Dad. Who were you?"

Harry stood in front of two gravestones. Both had a stag walking through a field of lilies etched in to the stone. Harry could feel the lingering magic where someone had transfigured the stone. It actually reminded him of someone, but he wasn't sure who.

He turned around thinking. He had talked to many of the people around the town. A lot of the muggles were actually happy to talk about his parents. He found out that his father had helped a lot of people move objects around or helped with repairs. While his mother would give out home remedies to anyone who got sick. He was sure that much of the help his parents provided was Transfiguration and Potions respectively. But people seemed to really like them. But everyone had pointed him to the house of a family up the street.

He walked over to the burnt out husk that had been his childhood home. He had already been in side once. The first time he broken down crying and wound up breaking some of the shattered building. He went inside exploring the property trying to connect the memories in his mind as he began picking up a few pictures of his parents to take with him as he walked out of his parents bedroom.

He found a couple of boxes laden with his parents' old books which he piled up as he found more and more of his parents belongings that he wished to have.

"Dobby."

"The Great Harry Potter has called-"

"Dobby." Sighed Harry as he began rubbing his ear.

"Sorry Master Harry, Dobby forgets you want me not to yell your name all the time." Answered Dobby with tears right before Harry hugged him.

Harry had began a working partnership with Dobby since the beginning of the year. For every job Dobby did for Harry he got a galleon. Which was all pretty beneficial to both. Harry got to spend time with the easily excited Elf and get some labor done, while Dobby got paid and got to see Harry.

"Dobby, could you take this stuff back to my room?" Asked Harry.

"The Great Harry Potter is stealing?" Questioned Dobby.

"No Dobby. I'm not stealing, these were my parents things." Harry explained with a grin. It was always good to talk to someone he didn't have to act around. Well act a little less around. As he and Dobby started bargaining with each other.

"Dobby will take the load for five knuts."

"Ten Galleons. And not a knut less."

"Four Sickles and no more."

"Two Galleons and not a penny less."

Harry wound up paying Dobby eight sickles. The house elf dissaparated with the things he had picked up. He turned and walked toward the house he had been pointed too.

He knocked on the door with a light knock noticing that the car was in the driveway. A man in his early forties answered the door a washcloth in his hands.

"Hello lad, Can I help you?"

"Are you Jack Berringer?" Asked Harry.

"I am. And you are?" Asked Jack as he set the washcloth down by the door looking confused at Harry.

"I'm Harry Potter. My parents were James and Lily Potter from down the road. I was hoping to find out more about them?" Asked Harry nervously.

"Harry?" Jack looked surprised before he turned his head and yelled into the house.

"Meredith, Lily and James' boy is here!"

Harry was startled. He was always known as The Boy Who Lived lived by most strangers. Except for Sirius, Remus, and Hagrid. But in this case, he was the son of his parents. Before he knew it, he was hustled inside by Jack and his wife into a comfortable chair across from the couple who sat across from him.

"You have her eyes, Harry." Stated Meredith. A short brown-haired woman with grey kind eyes who looked as though her arm pained her.

"It's what most people say about me when I ask about them." He responded he wasn't really sure how to bring it up. But then plucked up his courage and did so anyway.

"What were they like?"

"Your parents." Asked Meredith.

Harry nodded unsure of the situation.

"Obstinate stubborn and kindhearted to a fault. I once joked to your father that they had a lot of the Auld Irish in them. He laughed at that. Seemed to think it was hilarious." Answered Jack.

"Your Mother helped me out a lot, when we first moved here. I was pregnant with my first child, and we weren't getting any help from our parents. She helped me more often than I can count. Often brought you over to help me with something." Answered Meredith a faraway look in her eye as she looked over Harry's shoulder.

He turned and followed her gaze. A picture of his mother standing holding a Bundle next a hospital bed that contained Meredith.

Jack smiled, "That's our firstborn, Brian. Your mother came for the labor, and I think your dad watched you at home."

Harry nodded as he asked a question he had been fearing to ask. But one he realized after hiding over criminal hideouts normally right before Moody and Tonks busted in.

"Did they have any major faults or problems?"

Meredith looked at Jack who nodded at her. She turned to Harry and spoke one word.

"Yes"

"But they also challenged their faults unlike many." Jack shot in seeing Harry's distressed face.

"What do you mean?"

"Your father didn't put up with bullying. Of any kind. No one was terrorized around here without your father getting involved to put a stop to it. That's actually how I met him. Later I asked him why he hated bullies so much?"

"What did he say?"

"He said, 'In my desire to please my own father I became a bully to protect others before I realized how badly I screwed up.' And I don't want others making the same mistake." Answered Jack.

"Your Mother had a temper. A lot of people I've seen who have said they knew Lily Potter would put her on a Pedestal. But she had a temper to go along with the color of her hair. She wasn't proud of it. But she did her best to become better. Thankfully we were on the receiving end of that temper few times." Told Meredith.

"They were also people of conviction. But they would also admit that they were stupid dumb and idiotic hypocrites. But they tried to take stands on their values, even when it cost them a lot of people's friendship to befriend us." Explained Meredith as Jack left the room with an apology saying he had to find something.

"Why would people ignore them for befriending you?" Asked Harry genuinely confused. These people were kind or at least appeared to be so.

"Because Brian wasn't conceived in Wedlock." Said Jack as he walked into the room an envelope in hand.

"Your father said that someone had once done the same for a member of his family and that he should be willing to do the same." Explained Jack as he handed Harry the envelope.

"What's this?" Asked Harry as he held the envelope.

"Another fault of your parents was paranoia. They gave us this envelope before they were killed by that mobster that the Albanians-"

"Russians, Dear." Shot in Meredith.

"Russians or Albanians I always have a hard time remembering what the police told us. But they proved me wrong today and the day of their death with their preparations. This letter is for you, Harry. It's from your parents." Explained Jack as put his arm around Meredith's shoulder.

Harry was speechless and confused he wasn't sure what to say. He talked with the Berringers for a while longer before he got up to leave. He stuttered a quiet thank you with a promise to come back soon and seen them.

He walked backed to house as he looked at the letter in his hands.

"Do you think he will be okay?" Asked Meredith.

"I don't know. He looked more haunted than James or Lily. Don't know why though. He shouldn't remember anything." Answered Jack as they watched Harry walk up the street.