The Gauntlet
Harry had long blond hair and deep chocolate-brown eyes. She was doing some shopping before Ray was heading over to Moody's place. They had agreed to check Harry's abilities against the Auror trainees. Moody wanted to know just how good Harry was. Before that, though, Harry was still running around looking like a girl. She didn't look like her own mother anymore since that was a little too striking. She wanted to get some things in the no-mag world. Ray checked his watch. He hid as the potion wore off and headed out with his glamour in place. He apparated to the spot where Moody had wanted to meet him.
"There you are, lad," Alastor said.
"Thought you would have to send a search party out, huh, Uncle dearest," Ray said.
Alastor rolled his eyes. "Cheeky brat," he said.
Ray chuckled. He placed a hand on Moody's shoulder and they disapparated. They arrived at a heavily warded home. Moody had to finagle for a while before Ray could walk around. "I've added you to the wards, lad," Alastor said. "I hope that doesn't come back to bite me," he muttered. Considering Harry was the only person who had noticed the fake Moody, he felt like he could trust him.
Moody's house was tidy in a messy sort of way. There were piles of things piled neatly all around the house. There were two bedrooms. Ray settled down in the guest room with his things. "Thanks for letting me stay here for a bit," he said as he joined Alastor in the kitchen.
"Better you stay here where I can keep an eye on you," Alastor said. He started unpacking grocery bags and Harry helped him.
"Can I cook?" Harry asked.
"Knock yourself out," Alastor said.
"So when will we go see the trainees?" Harry asked.
"Tomorrow," Alastor said. "My last apprentice is meeting up with us there. I have a thing I want to test out with you. Do you mind acting like the bad guy?"
"Not really," Ray said.
"I don't want you to hurt anyone," Alastor said. "Use stunners and the like and place wards and other things that might help you. Your job will be to not get caught. Normally we pick a more seasoned Auror to do this, but I like the idea of sending in someone with your expertise."
"Just make sure they know not to hurt me either," Ray said.
"We'll get you set up before they arrive. We have a test village," Alastor said.
"Sounds good," Ray said. "What is my crime?"
"We'll probably go with dark artefact smuggling," Alastor said. "Murder always makes the trainees act up."
"Well, murder isn't very nice," Ray said. He was preparing chicken for dinner. He stuck it in the oven and turned the oven on. He cleaned the kitchen. He wanted to learn some household spells. He knew they existed since Mrs Weasley had been using spells like that. "I'm going to pop over to Diagon Alley and pick up a few books."
"You do that. Make sure to return to the spot that I showed you," Alastor said.
Ray nodded. He headed out. He checked in with his account manager and dropped off the sketches that he had for his home. The architect could hopefully turn that into a good-looking house. Once at the bookstore, Ray picked up several interesting books for life after school. Household spells and gardening spells. He grabbed a few books on Ancient Runes and Warding as well. The Hogwarts library was good, but he wanted a few books of his own. He would prefer sitting his OWL for Ancient Runes with Hermione so he could join her class afterwards. He grabbed some books on curse-breaking too. Who knew when that might be useful? He returned to Moody's place and settled down to check through his new books. He took notes as he found useful spells. He was considering writing his own notebook of useful spells that he didn't feel like keeping track of but he might need some day. It was a good thing he had picked up a few notebooks earlier that day.
Moody sat and worked his way through the mail that had built up over the year that he had chosen not to care about while he was working. He grumbled as he tore the envelopes open. "Of all the foolish things…"
Ray chuckled. He noted down another spell. Peeling potatoes with magic sounded good. He wasn't a fan of doing it by hand. He took a break to cook some rice eventually. It was a peaceful evening. After dinner, Ray and Alastor sat together and planned for the next day.
4th of July, 1995.
Ray was bouncing on the balls of his feet. He was looking forward to playing the villain. He was standing with Alastor in the town square of a fake town. It looked real enough. He already had plans. He would have almost two hours to prepare a hideout and set up his stash. He was seeing the potential, and he was itching to get going.
"Finally," Alastor said.
Ray followed his gaze. A woman was heading their way. She had bubble-gum pink hair and walked with a spring to her steps that spoke of excitement. "Wotcher, Moody!" she said.
"About time you got here, lass," Alastor said gruffly.
Ray held his hand out as she reached them. "Raiden Moody," he said.
The woman stumbled and he caught her. Her eyes turned bright blue and her hair fell in blond curls matching him. "Hi, I'm Tonks," she said as she blushed brightly. "I didn't know Moody had any relatives." She pulled away from Ray.
"Nymphadora here is my last protégée," Alastor said. "Raiden is my nephew."
"It's Tonks," Tonks said.
"Not when you are this late Nymphadora," Alastor said.
Tonks' hair turned fire-red. She fired off a spell at Moody. It bounced off a shield and Ray moved forward. He was smirking. "How come you don't like your name Nymphadora," he said teasingly.
"Oh, you," Tonks was firing spells in quick succession at Ray. He danced out of the way and dodged. A smirk spread over his lips as he started firing spells back at her.
Moody watched their duel. He was glad that Harry had his own style born from his training with a sword, but he had also adapted to some pointers from Moody himself. He was clearly better than Tonks, but she still knew more spells than he did.
"You are bloody good," Tonks said between breaths. She was breathing heavily. Her hands rested on her knees for a moment. "You are barely out of breath," she said accusingly.
"I'm just that good Dora," Ray bragged.
"Shut it, lad," Moody said. "Gloating never looks good."
"Certainly Uncle dearest," Ray said sweetly.
"So Ray is going to be our villain today. He will be something else for them," Alastor said.
"Oh, certainly. They won't expect a Mad-Eye Jr.," Tonks said.
Ray laughed. "I don't have the crazy eye though," he said. His eyes started changing colour rapidly.
"Are you a Metamorphmagus too?" Tonks asked.
Ray shook his head. "No, I'm just very good with colouring spells," he said.
Tonks nodded and sighed. "Here I was wishing for someone else like, little old me," she said. "Oh, whelp."
Ray chuckled. "I apologize for making you yearn for something I cannot provide you," he said with a bow.
Tonks laughed.
"Children," Alastor muttered. "Ray, get set up!" he roared.
Ray sighed. "Well, I'll talk to you later," he told Tonks. "I'm off to make life hard for the trainees."
Tonks smiled. She wouldn't mind getting to know him better. "I guess we'll go prep the trainees," she said.
"Lead the way," Alastor said.
...
"This way ma'am," Ray said. He led her into the living room before disappearing for a bit. He came back with the fake dark items and she picked one out. "Thank you," she said.
Ray smiled as she left and he saw her get taken in.
The Aurors would be coming.
Ray laid the house full of traps and hid the fake dark items again. He wasn't going to run. He would defend himself if they attacked him, but he wouldn't fight them. Just breaking into Ray's house was trouble enough. The Aurors had to call in curse-breakers.
Ray came walking downstairs as they finally broke in. He didn't draw his wand. But he sent out a shield in front of himself to protect him from the many stunners that were sent his way.
"I thought he would fight," Amelia said as she watched the Aurors arrest Ray.
"He is probably fairly certain they won't find anything to hold him on," Alastor said. "A dark item on someone that left his home doesn't mean he gave it to her unless you want to use truth serum."
"Which we don't use on witnesses," Amelia said.
"This will be realistic," Alastor said. "We often take the bad guys in but have to let them go because we don't have any proof. It is good for them to learn that."
Ray watched the Aurors as they moved about him. They had sent curse-breakers in to try to get at his stash. They had located it which was a plus in his books. He hadn't made it easy.
A Dwemer came walking into the room. "Can we try anything at our disposal?" he asked in Tamrielic.
Ray nodded. "Go ahead," he said.
The Dwemer walked back out of the room.
"So, where are the goods?"
"What are you talking about?" Ray asked.
"Don't play dumb you know what we are talking about."
"I have no clue what you are talking about," Ray said. He sighed as the Aurors continued questioning him. They weren't great at it. They assumed his guilt without proof of it. He didn't like that. Thankfully, these were trainees and still needed to learn that things weren't always going to go their way.
"We can't get in," the Dwemer had come back. He glared at the Aurors. "It's locked tight and our best can't open it."
"You can't be serious," one of the Aurors said. She looked at Ray. "How can this guy create something that you can't open?"
"That is classified," the Dwemer said. "Though I would like to have a talk with you about it later."
Ray bowed his head. "Speak to Dumac and he will arrange a meeting," he said.
"So what do we do now?"
"Nothing."
"We don't have enough evidence to hold him."
"He has a stash we can't get in."
"That isn't illegal though. We could get a court order that forces him to open it, but we don't have enough evidence."
"I say we prop him full of truth serum and get him to tell us."
"Can't do that without the right paperwork done."
The Aurors continued to argue as they left the room.
Alastor entered the room. "What do you say we do now?" he asked.
"They will have to let me go," Ray said. "I think we should end it here and I will combat test them some other day."
"I agree," Alastor said. "You even stumped the goblins, which is impressive."
"I just know somethings that no one else knows," Ray said.
"How about you head home and I'll have a talk with the trainees," Alastor said.
"Sounds good." Ray stood up and disapparated.
Alastor walked out.
"We got the guy right?" one of the trainees said.
"You worked off hunches and had no tangible evidence," Alastor said. "That happens a lot. Get over it and move on. Not every case is going to be clean-cut." He glared at them.
"Who was that guy anyway?" a trainee asked.
"My nephew," Alastor said. He smirked at their surprised looks. "I asked him for some help. I don't move as fast as I used to. He'll run the gauntlet tomorrow. I want you to watch."
"Newbie will never make the gauntlet on his first run."
The trainees laughed.
Alastor grinned. They would be surprised.
"I would like to see that too," Amelia said.
"Tomorrow at eight," Alastor said. He shuffled out of the building and headed home. Ray had already started dinner. It had gone well. It hadn't been what they had planned for at all, but Ray's ability to adjust on the fly was impressive. That was the kind of thing they wanted to see in their recruits. He knew Ray wouldn't join the Aurors though.
5th of July, 1995.
Ray took a deep breath. He was standing at the mouth of the gauntlet. It was the grown-up version of the obstacle course that he had run at school. This one fired real spells. He got hit with something and he suffered the effects. The worst thing in there was the Cruciatus Curse. They obviously wouldn't kill their trainees. He looked up at Alastor who signalled. He was starting the timer.
Ray rushed forward. He threw up a shield and dodged the first flurry of spells. He used the environment and reached the first checkpoint. Seven to go. The first one was the simplest for obvious reasons.
"He is good," Amelia said.
"He is moving very fast," Rufus said.
"He'll slow down if he needs to," Alastor said.
"He is getting hit with spells," one of the trainees said with a sneer on his face.
"Yes, but all that has happened to him is that his hair is now purple," Tonks said.
"I swear he has been hit with the imperious curse," another trainee said.
"Maybe he can throw it off," Rufus said. He looked at Alastor who grinned.
"You can do that?"
"If you are mentally strong enough," Amelia said. "It is rare enough, but you can train to get there."
"He is trained," Alastor said. "A Master of the Mind the goblins call him. His mind is impenetrable and he can throw off the imperious curse."
"Is that why he just takes those?"
"Probably," Rufus said. "He takes spells that he knows are harmless to him so he can defend himself from the spells that could harm him. It is impressive for someone as young as he is."
"How far do you think he'll go?" Tonks asked.
"Through," Alastor said. "But he'll take some bad hits. He can heal so he'll keep going."
"He sounds like someone we could use in the department," Rufus said.
"We'll need to talk to you and you ma'am, after this," Alastor said.
Rufus and Amelia nodded.
Ray threw up a shield and rolled across the ground. He hissed as a gash spread over his hip. He healed it and kept running. After the sixth checkpoint, he had to slow down. He applied a body shield and walked out. He cast spells with his wand and applied shields with Nirn magic. He dodged an unforgivable.
"How can he get so far on his first run?"
"He has been trained using these types of courses," Rufus said. "That much is obvious."
They watched as Ray dodged and weaved past spells and obstacles. Then finally he reached the end. He collapsed to his knees with a grin on his face.
"That was amazing," Tonks said.
"It's very well done for a first run," Amelia agreed. She looked at Alastor. "You wished to speak with us," she said.
"Let's go down and grab him first," Alastor said.
Ray smiled at them as they reached him. "Hey, guys. How did I do?" he asked.
"Quite well," Amelia said.
Ray chuckled. He stood up.
"I think these two need to know," Alastor said.
"If you are certain," Ray said. He studied the two people Alastor had brought with him. Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour. Amelia looked like a woman you didn't want to end up on the wrong side of. Her hair was short and grey and she wore a monocle. Rufus on the other hand looked like he had a lion's mane for hair. He was messy but he still seemed quite serious.
"This is the head of the DMLE and the Head of the Auror Office," Alastor said. "I want someone but me to have your back and they are the best I can think of."
Ray nodded. "Could we go somewhere more private?" he asked.
"My office," Rufus asked.
"If you let us scan it for eavesdropping spells first," Alastor said.
"I can put up a ward that will keep things like that out," Ray offered.
Rufus grumbled but he agreed to let them go over to his office. He sighed as they found one spell after another and dismantled them. "It's a mess," he said.
"No wonder you are having trouble keeping raids a secret," Alastor said.
"You know what it is like. Two days from now they'll be back," Rufus said as he sat down behind his desk.
"Not if I ward the place," Ray said.
"They break through wards," Rufus said.
"Not these ones," Ray said. "Not even the goblins can do that."
"You can place wards like that against eavesdropping?" Amelia asked. She had after all been around when the best curse-breakers and ward masters among the goblins hadn't been able to break through his wards.
"I can place them against anything," Ray said.
"Go ahead," Rufus said. "Even if it only works for a while it will be worth it to get something done for a few days."
Ray nodded and went to work. He carked letters into the frame of Rufus door, speaking softly as he did so, "Wahl aan Spaan tol Kren fin Zul ahrk Gron nii fod Gahrot. Lost fin Zul Grind fin Spaan ahrk meyz Vonmindoraan," he said over and over again as he slowly charged the runes. He had to use his gems since he had used so much magic already that day.
"What does that mean?" Alastor asked.
"Create a Shield that Break the Voice and bind it when Stolen. Have the voice Meet the Shield and become Incomprehensible," Ray translated.
"What language is that?" Amelia asked.
"Dragon tongue," Ray said.
"Dragons don't talk let alone write," Rufus huffed.
"It wasn't dragons that created the written language," Ray said. "Humans did that. And dragons do talk. You don't know how to listen."
"Oh, really?" Rufus said. He folded his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at Ray.
Ray sighed and a small dragon climbed out from his collar and flew down to the floor before growing in size.
"Foolish man thinks you cannot tinvaak, speak," Ray said.
"Some jul, humans believe they are better than anyone else because they can," Qozul answered.
Rufus looked ruffled. He had quite clearly heard distinct words coming from the little dragon. He sat up straighter in his chair and looked between Ray and Alastor.
"You wanted to tell us something," Amelia said.
"Yes, ma'am," Alastor said. He looked at Ray who grabbed the earrings he was wearing and pulled them out. His blonde hair turned black and his blue eyes shifted to green.
If Amelia hadn't known better she would have guessed that it was James Potter standing before her. The other alternative however was just as unlikely. Harry Potter was supposed to be almost fifteen, not in his early twenties. "Explain," she said.
Harry started where it had all begun and brought the two up to speed as quickly as he could. He told them the condensed version of the story, but there were still quite a lot of things they needed to know to understand what had happened to him.
"You haven't told Albus Dumbledore?" Rufus asked.
"No, I don't think he would agree with quite a few things that I have had to do and for now he is better off thinking whatever it now is that he wants to think about me. Should I need to reveal what has happened I will, but until that time I have chosen not to."
"I agree with his reasoning," Alastor said. "Albus does have his weaknesses with offering people second chances. Some of the people he chooses to trust might not be the most reliable."
"Don't I know it," Rufus said. He studied Harry. "You have told quite a few people," he said.
"Yes," Harry said. "My friends and people I care about. I believe Alastor wanted me to tell you so something more official could be made in case something happens."
Rufus nodded. It generally wasn't a good idea to run around with alter egos unless it was sanctioned just for safety's sake if nothing else. "I guess we should write together something official but highly classified then. Pure need to know basis."
"Sounds good to me. Classification is Dovahkiin," Harry said. "Right now these are the people in the know." He placed a paper down with several names on it.
"We want to know when someone is added up until this no longer is needed," Rufus said.
"I'll send it through Alastor," Harry said. "I don't want Ray associated with myself if possible."
"Then we'll just destroy this when that becomes necessary," Rufus said.
"After Voldemort dies for real," Harry said.
"So he is around still?" Rufus asked.
Harry nodded. "I met him in my first year and I think he might have been trying to come back this year," he said. "I don't have any proof of that though. He is a wraith for now, but he'll be back and I'll be a target when that happens. Ray will give me a way to hide in plain sight if I need it."
"We might want to get him working with some Aurors if Voldemort does return, but until then I'd say we keep our noses clean and act like this never happened," Alastor said.
The other two nodded slowly. Knowing that Harry Potter was a seasoned warrior and not a child was somewhat calming if Voldemort did return.
Amelia nodded. "This is an interesting development," she said. "I'm glad you told us."
"So why are you still at Hogwarts?" Rufus asked.
"I still need to learn and take my OWLs and NEWTs," Harry said. "I might as well do that at Hogwarts. It is a little slow, but I fill it out with extra work and other activities."
Rufus nodded. "I guess we can't say anything about that," he said.
Amelia shrugged. "Everyone is entitled to their education and Harry Potter should start his fifth year after the summer. It is probably safer for everyone if he stays there. Fewer questions to answer," she said.
"All in agreement then?" Alastor said.
"I believe we are," Rufus said.
Harry smiled. Things were working out pretty great for him.
