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I do not own Harry Potter

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

Chapter 83

Harry watched the black slime ooze from Anthony Bugatti and hit the container that Audrey had collected. She quickly sealed the container with a magical bubble and stuck it off to the side as they watched the man and waited to see what would happen.

Nothing happened. Audrey checked his vitals and said he seemed fine, but still asleep. "I could wake him," she offered but she didn't look convinced that was a good idea.

"No, let's put a guard on him and make sure he's restrained," Harry said after a long moment, just waiting to see if the man might stir. "While I want answers, if she poisoned him, he might need to sleep to recover and frankly all of us are exhausted and could use a break."

"Agreed," Bill said with a sigh. "I want to get home and I'd really like something to eat."

"I'll set up a guard and then head out," Teddy told Harry. "The sweep of the Ministry is done and the Minister has been back in. I'll update her and then we'll all get some sleep."

Harry nodded his confirmation and watched the teams disperse. Before Rick could leave, he turned to the young man and said, "You did a great job with all of this."

Rick flashed him a cocky grin and shrugged. "Thanks."

"I appreciate you stepping in to do what, uh, others can't," he said as he noted the door was still open. It wouldn't matter that he didn't say Nat's name, thought. Rick would understand.

He shrugged that off. "It's better that I do it."

They both knew what he meant.

"I'd like to have you over to my house later this week for dinner," Harry told him and Rick stilled. They both knew that meant letting Rick into the secret of where the house was and how to find his family. It was a huge mark of trust that Harry didn't give out easily, but he'd come to know Patrick Hassel and he knew he was a good man. "Also, we always have a big dinner while the kids are home from school for the Easter hols, if you'd like to join in. That's a few weeks off, but it's always a good time. This is our last year of doing it, at least for a while. We only have the two left at school," he told him, wondering how the time had flown. Of course, Lily should have been with them, but instead she was about to have a baby.

Rick nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I'd like that, thanks."

Harry clapped him on the back and then headed for the door. He had a load of paperwork that would need to be filed to discuss this debacle, but it didn't have to happen that night. He was going home to hug his wife, hopefully eat until he was about to burst, and then fall flat on his face for a solid eight hours before having to do it all over again tomorrow.

He arrived home to food, thank you Polly, and his wife's concern that she used to cover up her ire at him for keeping them in suspense of his status on life for hours on end. "I'm sorry," he whispered into her hair and he held onto her in their kitchen.

She let out a huge sigh and then maneuvered him over to the table to eat. "I already sent Nat up to bed," she told him. "She was here almost an hour ago."

Nat didn't have people to instruct or plans to make and Harry was not sorry she'd been able to get to bed already. He ate automatically, not sure he actually tasted anything, and then went to pass out.

The next morning, he awoke to Ginny's hand on his arm. "You have an owl," she whispered and he glanced at her through one eye, unable to make out her expression without his glasses. "Come on," she said as she handed him his glasses.

Harry sat up as she opened one of the curtains, letting a lot of sunlight pour into the room while dust motes danced in the streams of late winter morning light. She handed him the letter and he scanned it quickly. "It's from Audrey."

"I already read it," she told him and he glanced up to see her retrieving clean clothes for him. "You need to get to the hospital. "I woke Nat and she's getting ready. You might want to take her."

"I'm not sure we need to," Harry said as he grabbed the trousers she held out. "I don't want to put her at risk and she's done all she can for Bugatti."

Ginny nodded and leaned against the wall, watching him dress quickly. "Whatever you think. I think she looks peaked and should stay here anyway."

"Then definitely she should," Harry agreed. "She can have an easy day and if we need her, I'll send Al for her later. I don't want her to overdo it."

Harry had a short word with Nat about his plan if he needed her later and then went straight to the hospital where he found the guard still in place at Bugatti's room. Rick was waiting outside the room for him, along with Thomas Gregory. The Auror looked at Harry and he noted that Gregory's sandy colored hair was rumpled, as though he'd had his hands in it a few times that morning. "You alright?" he asked his old friend. Gregory had been an Auror with Harry a long time, now, and although Gregory's light hair didn't show the gray like Harry's black hair did, the lines on his face matched Harry's, giving away the age and toll the job took.

"Yeah, didn't sleep well," Gregory said and at Harry's raised brow, he shook his head. "Nothing like that. We had my granddaughter last night and she wouldn't settle. It was a long night of walking her."

"That will do it," Harry agreed. "Babies are a lot harder at our age."

"Too right they are," Gregory agreed. The other man inclined his head towards the room. "He hasn't said much this morning, only asked after his wife. We have the Veritaserum ready and waiting. We ran it through one of the Healers in training who volunteered, so Rick could observe the effects on a willing subject."

"I saw what it's supposed to do," Rick agreed. "If he's fighting it or has a way to fight it, I think I'll be able to tell."

"Alright, let's get this over with," Harry said as he moved to the door and pushed in.

Bugatti was sitting up in bed, but he looked furious at his restraints and he glared at Harry the entire time as the Healers forced the truth potion down the man's throat. He shuddered once but he watched the man's eyes and they went vacant, gray eyes. He didn't look like the extremely wealthy business man now, but Harry supposed the hospital did that to everyone. He was dressed in a gown and his hair was disheveled.

He'd heard Muggles say that the clothes made the man, and he had come to the conclusion that while it wasn't exactly true, it did help camouflage a lot of sins.

"What is your name?" Harry asked him.

"Anthony Bugatti."

"How old are you?" Harry asked, realizing he hadn't actually verified his age.

"Forty-six," was the answer that came and when he glanced back at the other Aurors in the room he was given a nod.

"You were working with Isabella Crabbe," Harry went on slowly. "What did you do for her?"

Bugatti didn't answer.

Harry turned to Rick who shook his head. "It's still working."

If it was still working, then Bugatti didn't have a truthful answer to give to that question. What on earth was going on there? "Did you meet with Isabella Crabbe at your home in Italy?"

"No."

Harry's heart clenched in a spasm of fear because if he wasn't lying, then that meant that Daphne had lied and currently Daphne was staying with Lily but… no. No, that wasn't possible. Daphne had also been given the truth serum before Harry had let her into the secret of how to find their house and Daphne had never, not once, wanted to betray her nephew. It would be a long game on an epic scale if she had been playing this whole time.

Which meant that somehow Bugatti didn't know who he met with. "You were meeting with an older woman in your office at your house and your wife walked in. It was the day she packed up and left for England. Do you know her name?"

Bugatti didn't answer for a long moment but when he did he simply said, "I saw no one."

What on earth was this?

"Why are you in England?"

"I want to see my wife."

Harry shook his head. "How did you know your wife was in England?"

Bugatti stayed silent then said, "I don't know."

Harry heard Rick's very low muttered voice, "What the hell?"

A knock sounded at the door and a very exhausted Audrey opened it, beckoning Harry out of the room. "Are you getting anywhere with him?" she asked as she rubbed at her tired eyes.

"No," Harry told her. "He said he came here for his wife but he didn't know how he knew Daphne was here."

Audrey leaned back against the wall and sighed. "We finally figured out what that black sludge was that was pulled from him," she told him. "It was a memory potion that self-destructs every memory of a person."

Harry waited a beat, sure he hadn't heard her correctly. "Come again?"

"It's absolutely beastly to create, costs tens of thousands of pounds in ingredients," Audrey explained. "I wouldn't have been able to figure it out, at all, but the one ingredient was so rare that it narrowed it down to five potions and we eliminated it from that. It could only be a memory potion because he's not dead."

"How does that work, though?" He asked, trying not to get frustrated. This was supposed to be his closest lead and if what she was saying was true, it had just slipped straight through his fingers!

"She put one of her hairs in the potion and it wipes out his ability to speak about her," Audrey told him. "But then it was… well, it was pulled from him so my assumption is it also pulled all her memories from him and they plopped out in the bucket."

"Absolutely brilliant," Harry growled in frustration. He truly did not need this, but on the other hand it also meant he didn't have to waste his time interrogating the git any longer. "What the hell do I tell Daphne?"

Audrey hesitated a moment. "He might have worked with Crabbe willingly. That's a possibility. He'd still be the same person, so he might go do it again if given the chance. But right now, he's a blank slate. She's going to have to decide what she wants to do."

"Well, damn," Harry growled and then let out a short huff of a breath. "Thanks, Audrey. Go get some sleep. You did well."

"I dragged Rose into it, too," Audrey told him with a small smile. "She's not even done with her training and she's already remarkable."

Harry was glad for that, as they needed the help, but he had to think about that later. He went back into the room and asked, "Is he still under?"

"Yeah," Rick confirmed immediately.

"Right," Harry studied the man. "Will you hurt your wife, Daphne?"

"No," Bugatti answered immediately.

"Will you let anyone else hurt your wife?"

"No."

Harry considered his next question before he asked it. "Will you hurt Harry Potter or his family?"

"No."

Intrigued, Harry then asked, "Will you help someone to harm Harry Potter or his family in any way?"

"No."

"Are you going to harm anyone if you leave here?"

"No."

It wasn't enough for him to ever allow the man to be near Lily, but at the same time, he didn't have a good reason to hold the man.

"Have you committed a crime against Harry Potter or his family?"

"No."

"Have you committed a crime against the British Ministry?"

"No."

"Have you committed any illegal acts on British soil?"

"I drove too fast in my car."

"Anything else?"

"No."

Harry studied the man for another moment and then shook his head. "We can't hold him," he said, voicing his thought out loud. "Keep him here and keep him under guard. I'll bring his wife, if she wants to see him."

Harry had no idea what Daphne would do, but she had to be given the facts as he had them. When he arrived at his daughter's home, he found Lily, Daphne and Ginny there to greet him. Sera wagged her tail and sat for an ear scratch from him, but quickly retreated to lay by the crackling fire in the kitchen.

"I just made tea," Ginny told him as they all settled around the kitchen table. "Do you want some?"

"Thanks," he agreed for his wife and he smiled at her as she handed it over.

"Well," he said as he turned to Daphne. "Your husband has woken and I just interrogated him under the truth serum."

Daphne's eyes continued to meet his but he noted her hands were clenched hard around her mug. "What happened?"

"It's complicated," Harry admitted before taking a sip of his tea. "The fact is that we are going to let him go. We have nothing to hold him on, apart from Muggle speeding and I'd be done in for that, as well, if anyone could catch me. He admitted to no crimes here in Britain and I can't ask him about what he's done overseas, unless it directly pertains to Crabbe and he doesn't remember her."

Daphne stared at him and then shook her head. "He definitely knows her."

"It would seem that Crabbe gave him a potion that she either forced on him or he willingly took. The potion was specifically tied to Crabbe so that he would not be able to…" Harry paused and then rethought about how he had to explain it, since the potion was not exactly as he was describing. "He basically can't remember her anymore."

"What does that mean?" Lily asked him as she shifted in her seat. She was only a few months off from having her baby and she was already getting big. "Does that mean he's innocent or guilty?"

"It means we don't know whether he participated in this willingly or not," he answered, but it was to Daphne that he looked. This was her husband and her fight. "Crabbe is good at forcing people into things. It's possible she did just that. She's also good at making powerful alliances with greedy people. It's possible she didn't have to force your husband. Right now, he doesn't remember but he is still the same person he was before she took her memories of him. If she was able to corrupt him before, she will be able to corrupt him again."

Daphne sat back in her seat and her eyes were bleak as she studied him. "What do you think I should do?"

"I don't know," Harry admitted reluctantly. "I did ask him, under the truth potion, if he loves you and he says he does. He says he doesn't want to hurt you. But I can also tell you that I will never allow him into the secret of this house or to have access to Lily."

"No, you shouldn't," Daphne agreed almost absently. "I don't… I honestly don't know what to do with this."

"You don't have to decide now," Harry said and then he drained his tea. "I have to get back to the hospital and I can take you to him, if you like. Or you can take some time to think on it and I'll arrange a meeting for you later, if you choose."

"Or," Ginny said gently as she reached over to place a hand on Daphne's wrist, "You can disappear from him and never be forced to see him again. You aren't without resources and we can help make that happen."

Daphne smiled at Ginny, but it didn't reach her eyes. "I think… I think I want to see him. I think I need to speak to him before I make up my mind."

"Alright," Harry said with understanding. He had expected as much. "Take what time you need and then we'll go."