They were gearing up for the final raid. It had been weeks and she had to spend Christmas away from her family in England. The Potters and Weasleys were a tight-knit household that rarely spent Christmas apart. She missed her Mother's and Grandmother's cooking, James' braggadocious jokes, Fred's pranks, her nieces and nephew running around…
This year it was only her and Dad. Together around a small fire in the French Auror headquarters. He summoned her to a small office assigned by the French. He cast a few silencing charms before gazing upon her. "Lily… I hope France is suiting you well. I'm sorry, it was— it was never my intention to drag you into this," he sounded grim and almost apologetic, though Lily could tell that he appreciated her presence.
"Dad, I don't mind being here. I'm needed here. This is big. If the locations we deciphered were correct, the sources the Aurors received were reliable… this could end it all."
He nodded. "Stay safe. I… I know you're a capable witch, but I don't want to lose you too." He gave a small wan smile. Her father had always been more reserved than her mother and the years haven't been kind to him.
"I will."
~X~
— "Pratchett and Dubois— I've always known they were traitors! They will burn! They will burn for their treachery!"
The Crime Lord was railing, furious at this apparent unanticipated ambush. Though how unanticipated, Neil couldn't exactly decipher for Duponte appeared utterly convinced of who leaked everything. He fumed but with a certain clarity that left Neil with unease. Prachett— that had to be Emilia Prachett, right? His brother had mentioned her briefly as an ex-girlfriend once upon a time. Something about her marrying some rich French wizarding scion. Duponte seemed clearly fazed, overwhelmed, but it also seemed that he knew exactly what had happened and why it did the moment everything came together. Their sources were supposed to be shrouded in mystery. Their identities weren't supposed to be known for purposes of protection.
No matter at that, for legions of Aurors had finally descended upon the Crime Lord's inner circle. The fortuitous timing, the carefully planned execution, the overwhelming numbers all left little chance for successful resistance. The challenge was remaining relatively subdued compared to the outright display of violence and illegality by the criminal gangs and their supporters.
Sneering, Duponte's lieutenant tried to cast a Killing Curse but was interrupted by a swift disarming spell from Head Auror Potter himself. He was then bound up and carried off by a team of French Aurors.
Ducking and blocking off a nasty curse, Neil scurried to the right of the room, where Cynthia was struggling one against two. "Need some help?"
"What do you think?" Short. Curt. Frustrated. In need of aid.
A prompt, crisp parrying of spells continued on both sides. Neil and Cynthia had long figured out each others' rhythms.
Before either of them could finish disarming their opponents, the gangsters were knocked over by the surrounding commotion. Debris was flying around, chaos, pandemonium…. And now it ends.
"Lily!" An agitated cry rang from the other side of the commotion. It was Morrison. Before either of them could react, it was too late. A bright green stream shot out of Duponte's wand towards her. It could only be one spell.
"No!" Neil heard Cynthia gasp. Head Auror Potter's face turned white. Tobias looked on the verge of a breakdown.
Until — out of the blue, all of a sudden— it was not Lily Potter, but the Crime Lord Cyril Duponte, who dropped dead on the floor with a clatter.
~X~
For a split second, Harry felt his heart ache. The Killing Curse aimed at his only daughter with little chance of evasion. Her eyes seemed almost resigned — his did too. Was he a fool for not stopping her from joining this? Must he go through the pain of losing another child again—
Dubois dropped dead on the floor. Listless. Lifeless. Eyes like glass marbles.
It was eerily reminiscent.
Another Killing Curse backfired. It was almost too coincidental. Father and daughter, decades apart. But all he felt was relief. "Lily! Oh Lily!" He called to her as she looked back at him, bewildered. "Lily!"
~X~
It weighed ever so heavily upon him and for a brief moment, Neil empathized with the Head Auror's decision to drop it in the Middle of the Forbidden Forest all these years ago. He had pocketed the stone not too long after Duponte's dead body was removed from the scene and the remainder of the crime boss's henchmen arrested. Oh how it tempted him.
He wondered if Suzy was still alive. He never got the chance to say goodbye. Mayhaps he should have handed it over before such thoughts could plague him. No, that was too late. He would twirl it in his fingers, seek out her spirit — if only for just one instance…. No. No. She was not there. It couldn't be… or perhaps it was meant to be. Suzy was still out there somewhere. Whisks of smoke surrounded his fingers as he gazed at the stone again. It really was quite unremarkable. Not too dissimilar from a large, dark pebble. Deceptively banal.
"Auntie Amelie…" He whispered, testing its capabilities. She had been his mother's sister: Evangeline Rosier's twin who gave birth to a Squib and perished soon after from a rare genetic disease.
— Neil… Neil is that you?
— Yes, yes, it is me, Auntie. The night air of Paris is so very suffocating…
A chuckle, fading in the distance. He could sense her presence lingering.
— Eleanor is well. In a muggle boarding school, cared for to the best of her abilities… It's where all the rich muggle kids go. Rest well..
— Neil… Of course… I know. Us deceased souls, we never leave the living. Not truly. Tell Evangeline I love her… And that I forgive her… I do. I really do…
He shoved the stone back into his pocket just in time before Morrison came around and embraced him. "We did it Neil! We vanquished the crime lord! The French Aurors are throwing a party tonight! You coming?"
Looking at Morrison's boisterous demeanor, Neil gave a quick nod. "Yes. Yes, I'll be there. But… but not before I speak to the Head Auror. I'll stop by his office a bit. Gotta report on team performances and whatnot."
"Oh come on! Give it a rest!"
"Don't worry. It won't take long. You'll all receive splendid evals." He grinned, genuinely relieved that this tumultuous episode was over.
~X~
"Head Auror Potter," Neil said grimly after he shut the door behind him. "If you may permit so, I would recommend a Silencing Charm around the walls to ensure the total confidentiality of what we are about to discuss."
The man — his boss's boss's boss, really - gave him a mildly puzzled glance but acquiesced. "Very well."
He hesitated as he surveyed their surroundings, for there was no doubt this would be a difficult conversation. "I… I was aware that the French Aurors were informed that the Stone had disappeared in the commotion." Without saying else, he reached for his pocket and placed the Resurrection Stone on the table. "I picked it up after the Crime Lord dropped dead and all hell broke loose. I thought it best for you to decide what to do with it. If this falls into unsavory hands again, well, I shudder to think what it might be done with it."
"Thank you," the man before him nodded.
"I supposed I should apologize too. I must admit I was tempted to use it," Neil admitted, gazing into the Head Auror's eyes.
"Many great men were," Potter uttered quietly. "Perhaps I was mistaken in believing it would remain in obscurity once I dropped it on the floor of the Forbidden Forest."
"You couldn't have known how things would turn out," Neil said. "Sir, I—"
"Please, Neil, there is no need to call me Sir. You are not a schoolboy anymore and neither am I a teacher." A small smile.
"Right… I… Sir— sorry Head Auror Potter. I don't believe we've actually spoken much before," Neil ventured. For there was another urgent matter he needed to consult with the Head Auror. He needed the man's trust and reassurance. His friends would probably joke that this was some oblique networking opportunity. "But there is something else I need to tell you. I'm not sure how to begin. Yesterday, right after the raid, when we were in our residential quarters celebrating, I received an owl letter from another anonymous source. The contents it revealed where both damning and disconcerting. I've only told Cynthia and Thomas and they both insisted that I come directly to you."
He took out the letter and handed it to the Head Auror. "It's…. quite a lot to take in."
Potter's green eyes flickered over the text, frowning as he tapped his wand on the parchment and muttered another indecipherable spell. "This is indeed a serious allegation."
"If it were true. We cannot verify the source of this letter just yet," Neil added.
"But if it were, this would mean that the very command structure of the French Auror department is compromised, that my counterpart would indeed be one of Duponte's men in disguise. However, with the Crime Lord gone, what's to happen next?" He spoke quietly, contemplating his options.
"The reliability of this letter—"
"It made sense. Teddy always suspected there was something off about the French Head Auror."
"But who could have sent this? And how would they know?"
The Head Auror's brows furrowed again. His expression was rather inscrutable, though Neil wondered if he had any preconceived suspicions.
"Well someone did leak the location of Dupontes' lair, the Dubois couple, possibly because they had insider access or possibly to wash themselves of any culpability. Could it be the same source?"
"The writing and traces here appear to be different. It wasn't from them."
"Of course." Neil felt silly for speculating.
~X~
A case doesn't just end when the suspects are subdued, but Lily never expected the aftermath for this one to be so tumultuous.
The discovery of the impersonation of the French Head Auror and the rescue of the actual man — Dad had chuckled at how much it reminded him of something he'd seem before, as he always did — from a secret cellar so his captor could constantly retrieve his hair and toenails for regular Polyjuice Potions, brought absolute mayhem upon the French Wizarding Government. Firing after firing. A clean sweep to clear out the incompetence. When all of that was done they gave their British friends medals, but Lily herself received a Legion of Honor, the most prestigious of them all, which she balked at.
Rumors of the Crime Lords death swept over the Wizarding World and Lily Luna Potter was at the centre of it all. There was talk of how she vanquished him, just as her father vanquished the Dark Lord all these years ago — a backfired Killing Curse. There was even more bizarre speculation that the Potters are simply immune to the Killing Curse. She was greeted by cheers among the French Auror department. The Potter name had experienced an unexpected revival, the previous stains inflicted by her brother partially remedied. Both her and Harry were seen as undiminished heroes again.
Yet all of this feels so contrived. She feels as if she does not deserve this status, that it wasn't really her who defeated the man. She was merely there when he dropped dead. She was no skilled duelist, decoder or leader, merely a medic attached to the Auror department in charge of fixing injuries during high stakes missions.
But now they would attach the same hero status to her as they did to her father. It was so strange and disconcerting.
In the midst of it all, she sought to seek advice and comfort from her father, but he was deeply contemplative. There was something else occupying his mind: reprimanding the impersonator was only afterthought. Perhaps she could have tried harder to connect but once she had gotten home and invited Freddy over for a glass of wine and he circled his arms around her, all seemed well. Freddy was fun and caring, a muggle to boot so he would have no idea of the shenanigans circulating around the Wizarding World. He always knew how to make her feel okay.
~X~
When he returned to school, talk of his Aunt slaying the Crime Lord in France was all the chatter there is — and Nigel feels responsible for it all, yet there were few names he could confide him.
He knew that there were things only he knew— and perhaps a few other people— that the rest of them would never even been aware of. The tip of the secret location and its entrapments — that was actually Uncle Albus — and the impersonator in the French Auror department — that was Uncle Albus again— those were things he knew he couldn't disclose to anyone else. He never got the chance to speak to Grandpa Potter either, for he had to depart for Hogwarts before the man and his Aunt returned from France.
"Have you heard the news?" Karen whispered on the table. "Your Aunt's a heroine! Truly the Boy-Who-Lived's Daughter!"
Indeed, many other students with French relatives walked up to him and asked him to send this thanks to his Aunt, most of whom he had never spoken to. Then there was Ana, but she thanked him personally too. "I knew what you did," she said, "Mum and Dad are very grateful. If you ever need a play to stay in France, they're very happy to host you."
Nigel thought about confessing his involvement to Yiannis and his other friends because for some reason it gnawed at his insides. No secrets, they had promised each other only shortly before the holidays. No secrets indeed.
"I sent the letters," he whispered one night in the Ravenclaw Common Room, barely audible so only his close friends who were all writing History Magic Essays near the corner could hear him.
"What?" Karen asked, seemingly befuddled.
"The letters," Nigel muttered again, not wanting to attract extra attention. "The letters to Ana's parents about the location of the Crime Lord's headquarters. The letters to the British Aurors about the impersonator. It was me.
"What?" Karen repeated, looking even more baffled. "You're not saying this was all your doing?"
"No. Not all mine. But I wrote the letters. The information was from Uncle Albus. For some reason, he knew."
"What?"
"And… and it's only a matter of time, probably, before the rest of my family knows… I…."
"Hang on, slow down mate," Karen said as Conrad and Yiannis' shock rendered them both speechless. "You have to explain the full extent of this all to us. One step at a time."
~X~
"So, you're telling us that basically your Uncle — who, by the way, is still England's most wanted man — told you the location of the French Crime Lord's Headquarters and all its entrapments, as well as the identity of his plant in the French Aurors. Then said Crime Lord dropped dead when he tried to attack your Aunt during the raid that only happened because of the location that was leaked? Sounds like a set-up to me," Conrad declared. "Look… look I don't mean your Uncle was playing 5D chess to take over the world or anything but it sounds like he could have had some beef with the Crime Lord and carefully crafted the situation to take the man down."
"Hey!" Nigel found himself protesting.
"It's only a theory—"
"By all the existing accounts, the Crime Lord dropped dead when he tried to kill your Aunt," Yiannis contemplated, being deep in thought.
There was indeed a downside to confessing to all his Ravenclaw friends, namely that they would postulate all sorts of outlandish theories, but Nigel knew he could no longer keep all of this to himself. His friends did have a point in that this whole affair had many angles to it. Besides, it was just a gut instinct but for some reason he felt that the rest of his family, particularly Grandpa Potter, Mother and Father, were close to figuring out his correspondences with his Uncle. Sooner or later, he would need to make hard choices and he needed all the help he can get.
~X~
The celebrations continued when they returned to Britain. Cynthia had invited everyone over for drinks and, for the first time in a very long time, according to Thomas, she appeared content. Morrison was looking pleased with himself as usual and even Tobias was smiling.
But Lily's reaction was more inscrutable, for there was clearly something that bothered her. Neil wondered whether that was why the Head Auror summoned him to a one-to-one meeting yet again— as a sort of personal check-in to his daughter perhaps.
"Neil Nott," the man before him spoke. "You must be wondering why I asked for a meeting."
"Your daughter has done well in this case, though I'm sure you don't really need me to explain things." A chuckle, albeit a nervous one.
"Lily… I'm just relieved and happy for her. But no, that's not why I called you here."
The Head Auror looked troubled. Neil thought he would pause to see what the man had to say next.
"The letter that you had received… it was traced back to a familiar source… a familial source, to be precise."
"Who?" Neil couldn't recognize the trace within the letter, nor the adjusted handwriting. "Should I be familiar with them?"
"I'm not sure," Potter finally said. "It was written by my grandson, who is a Second-Year at Hogwarts."
Neil remembered reading about the boy in the papers, for the Potters were still perpetually the focus of the papers. "But how would he know?"
"Indeed," Potter repeated, "How would he? That was something that puzzled me too if it weren't for Mimsy, my daughter-in-law's house-elf. It wasn't easy for my son and Claire to get her to confess it all and she had been most distressed."
"What did she say?" Neil asked, not liking where this could be heading.
"It appears that Nigel has been in contact with my son, my other son."
"What?!"
"It would helpful if you could keep this to yourself, though I am sure my grandson isn't the only one who has kept in contact with Albus over the past few years," Harry said quietly, surveying Neil before him.
"If we're talking about Lawrence, I don't think they've spoken for years."
"But they have spoken."
Neil paused. It would be a difficult conversation to pursue, but he knew that him and the Head Auror were on the same side of things for the moment. "Yes… I have no concrete evidence to assert this so it's all circumstantial, but I believe they could have."
Potter nodded. There was something cold about his gaze that made Neil feel uncomfortable. The usual calmness and warmth was gone. It reminded him of someone else all of a sudden. He thought about waiting for the man before him to elaborate further but realized the Head Auror was waiting for him to elaborate further. Then he remembered his first series of interviews with the Aurors and the questions they had for him because of his… background, especially the Aurors from his mother and father's generation. It didn't matter that he said his parents were in Brazil— which was true, father had worked in a Herbology division there and met his mother, a French witch looking to broaden her horizons, in Latin America— during the Second Wizarding War, for his family name already notorious enough to raise more than just eyebrows. Not to mention everyone knew he could have gotten into professional Quidditch had it not been for Suzy.
"First things first," Neil began, trying not to avert his gaze, trying to suppress the flicker of paranoia rising through him, "I want to be sure that you, Sir, are really who you say you are."
"Excuse me?"
"We knew what happened with the French Head Auror. Impersonations could happen. And I mean no disrespect, Sir, but something similar has happened to me before." He wanted to pause but one glance at the Head Auror made him feel compelled to continue. "Lily, Cynthia, most of my team, for a while, tried to investigate circumstances surrounding your son after the incident at the Department of Mysteries. I reached out to my brother, though prior to that, we had a brief falling out."
"Go on…"
"Forgive me Head Auror," Neil said as he felt himself gulping, as memories more than a year ago came flooding back, "For I don't think you would like what I have to say next — and neither would I. My brother finally agreed to meet up, only when I saw him in his office, it wasn't him." He felt himself trembling and it frustrated him yet he was powerless to stop it. He remembered he had been so terrified, yet now he was terrified for a different reason. He kept reminding himself that it wasn't his place to ask the Head Auror: do not judge me too harshly. "I met your son that day. I feared for my life. It wasn't a particularly sophisticated disguise but it was my brother's place and I trusted him, so I let my guard down. But I was afraid and he had disarmed me when I wasn't noticing so I did not confront him. Instead, I spoke with him."
He paused, surveying the man before him. Realizing the he would get no replies until he drew his account to some kind of conclusion, he opted to continue. "I had to try to keep things cordial. I asked him what happened to my brother, he said Lawrence was out on a date and he had intercepted my letter. I asked him whether they were in contact, he said they had cut ties not too long ago. I asked him what he was doing the night he supposedly broke into the Department of Mysteries, he said he was never there. Said he was in Hogwarts instead and Hogsmede before instead. He claimed he had apprehended and bounded the man who broke in."
"I see."
"Is there anything else you would like to know?"
"Is there anything else you talked about?" The question was turned back on him.
"Yes. Sir, I—" He remembered the Head Auror specifically asked to not be called 'Sir', but he couldn't help but feel like chastened student "— I asked him why he destroyed certain documents the man stole. He claimed it was because it contained information about… something called Horcruxes. Then again, he also claimed he stopped the Sons of Walpurgis from making one before he left the Aurors and that his actions were deemed out of order because he killed the people involved. I'm afraid he didn't elaborate and I didn't know what to say."
Now the Head Auror's expression was grim. "I see."
"He almost made me swear an Unbreakable Vow to not disclose any of this, but then again, it almost worked. I was afraid. My team ceased our investigations on him after our meeting. Yet I can't help but feel that even after speaking to you, Head Auror, that little has changed," Neil confessed before finally sinking into his chair.
It was done. He had nothing more to say, nothing more to disclose. A strange weight has been lifted off his shoulders but he knew he was putting everything in peril. His safety, his career, his reputation amongst his peers… Perhaps he should have held his nerve and not spoken anything. There was, after all, little indication that the Head Auror shared his son's Legilimency. No. It was done. The sick, gnawing feeling was gone. Was this worth it?
There was little sympathy he could expect from the man before him, who, deep down he knew, suffered much more than he did both in his earlier and later years. Neil took a deep breath and was prepared to leave the room. Perhaps he would find solace among his buddies from school who happened to be free tonight, a bottle of vodka in hand and boundless opportunities for drunken stupor—
"How was he? How was my son?" Potter finally spoke again, his voice shaking and the grimness had faded. And the Neil remembered that the man still kept a photo of his son hidden somewhere in his drawer, not to mention all the rumors in the office.
Well, rather terrifying. But Neil refrained from the usual snark in light of the delicate situation unfolding before him. "He seemed angry, bitter even. I'm sorry Sir, I should have tried harder, I should have held my nerve and confronted him."
Potter shook his head. "No, fortunately, you didn't. You would have ended up like all the Aurors. Your seniors often described you as cautious, but perhaps it is your caution that enabled your to speak frankly before me today."
"Caution?" Neil was rather surprised with that word. "I would hardly consider myself cautious given that I just did something pretty reckless with all my confessions." Not to mention getting drunk and spilling things in front his friends and one superior.
There was a small chuckle. "My standards for reckless are way higher than that."
"Right, mum always said I was less reckless than my brother but my brother was pretty reckless so I never thought that meant much. One time he got so drunk he lost a thousand pounds at a casino. He was only 15 so that must have been illegal too." It was a stupid anecdote but Neil couldn't suppress a chuckle himself. He was glad the man before him found it funny too.
"Ah, I remember hearing about that. James talked about assigning a whole month's worth of detention to a couple of Fifth-Years who somehow sneaked out of Hogwarts and into a casino, though I thought he sounded rather jealous he did not come up with the idea himself."
"And when we got home for Christmas break, Lawrence was grounded for another month. Didn't stop him from sneaking out to go partying again. With standards like this, it's hard to not be considered the responsible sibling."
There was a moment of silence but the previous terseness was gone. "Don't worry Neil, none of what you just said was incriminating and, in fact, it had been most illuminating. Anyhow, you needn't worry about any of your immediate superiors knowing about the details of our conversation."
"Well, thank goodness."
"Some of the things you've told me cleared up a lot my suspicions. You've done some good work. In the future, should you encounter any other difficulties with Albus, I would like you to report directly to me. The door is always open."
A/N: Honestly, work has been crushing me and I haven't written a chapter for ages so bear with me if my writing skills have gone rusty. I've gone through some of the past chapters and cleaned things up a bit and reformulated some of the structures, but for some reason I managed to find time to pump out another chapter.
The next chapter, once I get to it, will have a lot more focus on Nigel and Albus and will skip to the former's Third Year. I didn't really get much into Harry's perspective but rest assured, it will come one day. Right now, there are too many complicated emotions I need to work through on that front.