Chapter Title: Chapter 87 Part TWO
Author's Notes: Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!

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Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

Harry glanced up as Hermione marched into his office, her expression set in stone, and closed the door. She sat and he studied her features, including the lines that were beginning to show around her mouth and nose. It was more noticeable that afternoon due to how tightly she was clearly wound.

"It didn't go well," Harry said, not needing to ask the question. Hermione had gone, in person, to let Emma Gupta's grandparents know that their granddaughter had been killed and her baby was in the hospital. He didn't know if she'd gone alone, but he assumed not because when he'd offered to go with her, she'd turned him down.

Hermione let out a small huff and shook her head. "They've disowned her. They'd disowned her a few years ago when she took up with a man they didn't approve of and Emma ran, leaving the country. They didn't even know she was back in England. They want nothing to do with the child and they don't even know she's a Squib when they rejected her. When I explained that Rick had seen she was a Squib, they doubled down on being unwilling to take her. I asked for the contact information for family members, but the three in the country wouldn't take her either."

It was a sticky problem. Most magical parents did not want a Squib for a child, even if they were a biological child. A thought quickly floated into his brain, wondering if Al and Nat might adopt the baby, but he just as quickly dismissed it. There would be a lot of other people who would be asked because it was their turn to decide.

"Any luck on identifying a father?" Harry asked her, wondering if that would even be possible.

"We've asked a few of her friends, ones who have come forward from our appeal to the public, but none of them knew she was back in the country or that she was expecting. We have absolutely no leads to go on," she concluded, running her hands over her robes to smooth them out. "What about on your end? Any idea how she made it to the hospital?"

"We took Nat over to look at it, but she said a human had to have dropped the baby there, and it isn't a magical signature she recognizes, so we're stuck unless she runs across the exact person who did it," Harry told her with no enthusiasm. "Yet another Crabbe mystery we're unlikely to solve. I honestly don't get why someone would kill her to steal the baby and then dump the baby at the hospital. What was the point?"

Hermione shifted in her seat and then said, "Some people are desperate for a baby. It happens, but this had to be a magical someone who was desperate for a baby and who could tell that the baby was about to die."

"If that's the case then we have to worry about someone doing this again," Harry pointed out grimly. "Just what I wanted to hear."

Harry put it aside later that afternoon as he was going to have dinner with James and Caroline. He needed a good dose of the love his grandsons could give him and he enjoyed the tussle he had with them on the rug. Alex was very into the game, but Asher was only starting to cotton onto the play wrestling.

Rufus the wonder dog tolerated the whole thing, but kept a jaundiced eye on her charges as Harry played and Harry didn't take lightly that if he did one thing wrong, the dog might just eat him.

"Dinner is ready," Ginny called from the kitchen as Caroline walked in to pluck Asher up into her arms.

"Come on, Alex," she said to her son.

"Grandpa come!" Alex told him as Harry rolled over to climb to his feet, something that was getting more difficult as the years moved on.

"I am coming with you," he told Alex as he took the little boy's hand and they walked together to the kitchen.

They didn't discuss anything more than Quidditch, cheer, or the boy's achievements as they ate dinner. Ginny was nearly done with her Quidditch book that she'd been working on for a few years and they had a publisher ready to go when she was through, but there was some pushback as she was refusing to do the press that was usual for a book launch.

"It's just not practical," Ginny told them when James asked her why. "We have security concerns and frankly, I just don't want to open myself up to anything. I've told them they can have one reporter write out questions and I'll answer them but that's it."

"They wanted to send her on a thirty-country tour," Harry told them with a small grin. "I said go, but she's not having it."

"I am not missing out on my grandchildren for three months when I don't actually care if I sell any of the books," Ginny said as he tickled under Asher's chin and the baby giggled merrily.

His grandson's brown eyes suddenly, and without warning, reminded Harry of the baby still at St. Mungo's without parents of her own and no family willing to claim her. He forced himself back to the here and now, where he was supposed to be focused. "You do care if they sell, but you don't care if you make any money."

Ginny shot him a small smile. "Yes, that's probably more accurate. Well," she said with a brighter smile for the children. "I think we have a mango for dessert."

Alex let out an excited squeal and Asher joined in, even though he was too young to know what it was and had barely started eating solid foods.

The next day ended up being the first good day for the Aurors they'd had in a long, long time, although it didn't feel like it would be good news at first.

The Muggles had located the baby's father. Harry had a phone call from the Muggle policeman and phoned him back just as soon as he had the message.

"You found the man?" Harry asked him in astonishment.

"Turns out he is her husband, but they were married in Russia and she hadn't changed her name," White told Harry. "He went back to Russia because his father fell ill, but he didn't want to stay long because his wife was close to giving birth. When he went to their flat and found her gone, he called 999 and reported her missing. We were able to piece it together from there. He's a wreck," the older policeman told Harry. "I have the flight records that say he came back just this morning, so I don't think he could have done it to her personally, but he could have hired someone. He's asking after the baby."

"Alright, what's his name?" Harry asked, ready to write it down.

"It's Nikolai Petrov, but let me spell it for you," White told him.

Harry copied it down and told White he'd send a car to pick Petrov up and bring him to be interviewed in London and to see his baby.

"Thank you," Harry said as they finished up their conversation.

Now he had to see if Nikolai was a murderer or not.

He had one of the Aurors pick the man up in a Ministry car and bring him to London to a Muggle building that was kept by the Ministry for meetings such as this, although usually it was meeting with parents of Muggle-born children.

The moment Harry and Rick entered the room and saw the red, swollen face of the man, he felt his heart clench in sympathy, but he had to be thorough. His hair was a pale shade of brown but his eyes were deeply blue, made even more startling by how red and bloodshot they were from crying. He was probably in his mid to late twenties but it was difficult to tell. "Nikolai," Harry said as he held out his hand. "I'm Harry Potter."

Nikolai blinked and his eyes flicked upwards to the faint scar on Harry's forehead. "Nik… I go by Nik," he said in heavily accented English. "I… I know who you are."

Harry glanced over towards Rick who said, "Squib."

"Yes," Nik agreed as he pointed to Rick. "Yes, that's the English word for it. Please," he said turning back to Harry. "Is… is my baby okay? They said she was, but they're Muggles and they don't know magic."

"Your baby is fine, now," Harry told him quietly as he took a seat across from the man. "Your wife and baby were poisoned by that poison being spread all around the world."

Nik's brow furrowed as he shook his head. "No, not that can't be. She was not sick when I left a week ago. She was fine, but that poison makes the women sick, yes?"

"It does, yes," Harry said as he glanced over to Rick, who shrugged. They hadn't brought Nat along with them because it was quite a safety risk to bring her outside of the Ministry. Now that they knew they could move Nik into the Ministry, they could have Nat examine him.

However, and it was a big however, Nik wouldn't have been able to Apparate the baby to the hospital.

"Do you know who might want to hurt your wife?" Harry asked Nik.

He watched the man knuckle away another tear before he nodded his head. "Her grandfather said he would rather see her dead than married to me. I think he meant it. I didn't want to come back to England, but we couldn't stay in India where we had been living. They weren't great about her marrying a Squib either."

Harry nodded slowly and then said, "We will take you to see your baby, but it has to be supervised. We have to make sure you aren't the one who hurt your wife. I know that's hard to hear, but—"

"No," Nik shook his head. "I want you to be careful. I'll do whatever it takes to get my daughter. I'm happy to wait as long as I can see her."

"Do you have any family who could help you?" Harry asked him quietly. "Do you know anyone in England?"

"My sister and her husband live in Scotland," Nik told him. "They should be here soon."

Harry went out and explained to the Aurors that they were to take him to see the baby and then he went back to the Ministry to ask Emma Gupta's grandparents to come into the Ministry for an interview.

They weren't able to arrange it until the following day, but the older couple had barely walked into the conference room before Harry knew the pair was guilty. It was so obvious that he didn't need Nat's confirmation that it was the grandfather's magic that was part of the magic to get the baby to the hospital.

They confessed in under an hour. They only wanted the baby to die, but when they'd contacted someone who could get the poison for them, they hadn't realized that they'd been putting a target on Emma's head.

"I gave Emma the tea with the poison," the grandmother told Harry with a defiance in her eyes that chilled Harry to the bone. "But it didn't seem to be working fast enough. We'd left it late into the pregnancy. We complained to the man who sold us the poison."

"It was him," the grandfather told Harry, his lips pinched together. "He tracked her down and killed her. He cut the baby out and left it with… with Emma's…"

And there, for the first time, the old man faltered.

"When he told us what he'd done, I sent him to make sure the baby was dead," the grandmother explained, continuing the story. "But he didn't," she went on as she turned a glare on her husband. "He took it to the hospital and now we have a Squib for a grandchild, all because she had to marry that filthy Russian Squib."

Harry was not sure how he kept his temper, but he left the room and let Teddy take over to begin the arrest process on these two psychos and to find out how they were able to buy the poison.

He was going to the hospital to tell Nik he was free to take his daughter home and end the day on a happier note.

~*~

Louis shook his head with a grin as he drank his coffee while Honor finished telling himself, Rick, and Lena the story of her boss at the Apothecary in Diagon Alley. It was nearly ten at night, and they were closing out a Muggle pub near Honor and Lena's flat, but it was the first chance Rick had had to see Honor in days. Louis didn't know much of the story, as Rick couldn't speak about it, but he knew it had been a rough few days based on the look on his friend's face.

He might not have come to know Rick as he had if it weren't for Lena needing a flatmate and Honor wanted to get out of her sister's house. It had made sense for the two to move in together as they had known each other through Al and James's family for a few years now.

Lily had told Honor she could move in with her and Scorpius in that big house, but Honor was absolutely done living with newlyweds. Well, at least until she was one herself. Louis glanced to Rick who was studying his girlfriend with a soft smile and wondered how long it would be.

He didn't look over at Lena. He didn't want to see what was on her face. He still hadn't managed to find the words to tell her that they couldn't be together. Every time he tried, something lodged in his throat so he couldn't speak.

He'd spoken to James about it, and James had unhelpfully asked him why he thought that maybe there was a reason he couldn't say the words.

And it didn't help that any time they were getting together after work like this, Louis was included in the group.

Lena drank coffee with him, even if the others had alcohol.

He didn't want to think about her support there, either.

He absolutely didn't want to hurt Lena, not for anything. She meant too much to him.

"So then I said," Honor went on, reaching over to take Rick's hand, "I didn't mix them up…"

Louis smiled appropriately, but his heart just wasn't in the story and he couldn't concentrate. He stared down at the dregs of his cup and wondered if Lena would still speak to him if he told her that he didn't have feelings for her.

He was starting to think he couldn't have feelings for anyone.

He'd been sober a long time now, and the further he moved from his drinking days, the further it felt he moved from the heart and feelings which used to beat wildly and react irrationally and emotionally to life. He just didn't have that anymore. It felt like everything was numb and Lena was no exception.

He jumped when he felt Lena's hand touch his for a brief moment. "Sorry, what?"

"You must be ready for bed," Lena told him with a sad smile. "We were just saying we are ready to turn in."

"Right," Louis agreed as they all rose to head towards the door.

"I'll see them back to their flat," Rick told Louis.

And for the first time since they'd started meeting up like this months before, Louis shook his head. "I'll come along. I could use the walk to clear my head, hopefully I'll sleep better, as well. I sat on my arse all day at work today. I could use the exercise."

He walked silently with Lena while Rick and Honor walked ahead of them, holding hands and laughing about something else that Louis didn't catch.

Louis didn't see the ambush before it was too late, but Rick did. He must have because he reacted several seconds before Lena and well before Louis knew they were in trouble.

From out of nowhere, men in cloaks appeared on the street, surrounding them and firing off spells, all of them aimed towards Rick.

Rick had forced Honor down and put some kind of shield on her as Lena worked whatever Auror magic she'd been taught to help Rick fight off their attackers.

Louis, who knew he was not equipped for this fight, ducked down by Honor and did what he knew was the best plan. He called up his Patronus and sent it for his uncle and his cousin Teddy. Louis considered, for a moment, grabbing Honor and Apparating away, but he knew there was a good chance one of them would be hit when her shield went down. He fired off hex at one man and knew he hit him, but primarily he focused on reinforcing the shield around Honor.

If Honor was protected, Rick would get them through this.

If Honor was hurt… well, it wasn't something Louis wanted to think about. He shot another hex and hit someone else, but it seemed like the wizards attacking them kept getting reinforcements. As soon as one dropped, four others stepped in to take his place.

Where were the Aurors?! This sort of magical battle was going to cause one hell of a mess with the Muggles because they were in the middle of a Muggle street! Their only bright spot is that it had been late and the street had been practically deserted.

"No!" Rick shouted and Louis glanced up just in time to catch Lena as she fell back into him, blood spurting everywhere from a wound to her head.

"Lena!" Louis cried out as he heard Rick's explosive furry and felt the waves of magic washing out from around him. Muggle car alarms from every direction started to shriek violently before they went wonky and slowly faded into silence.

But it wasn't silent for Louis as he lowered Lena to the ground and started sealing up her wounds using his shaking hands and the magic he'd been made to learn before he'd ever been able to step into a tomb.

Basic magical aid was essential, and he could stop the bleeding. He did stop the bleeding… but her eyes were closed and her breathing labored and she didn't open them, even when he shouted her name through the haze of fear and blood rushing to his own head as he willed himself not to pass out.

He pushed her bloody hair back away from her face and called her name again. He knew he spoke out loud, even if he couldn't hear it because he saw Honor shouting next to him, and he couldn't hear her either. Maybe something Rick had done had damaged his hearing.

He didn't know.

But he looked down at her pale, slack face, and wished desperately she'd open her eyes and speak to him so he could tell her… what?

And suddenly Louis realized he wasn't numb anymore. He was terrified, heartsick, and desperately certain he loved her.

And maybe it was too late.