2002, Virginia, Richmond, Somewhere Nearby (Honestly Harry Was Expecting More Parks)

Some of the latest attacks, and most consistent over the years, occurred around the Richmond area, which Harry immediately volunteered to scout out, with Jesse acting as his back up.

They had been combing through the area for nearly twenty-four hours without much success, everything was just so muggle . But as any Auror worth his wand knew, the tiniest slip up, the smallest thing overlooked, could, and almost certainly would in some areas, lead to somebody's death.

Harry checked his watch once more, three hours until his replacement in the form of Joseph James turned up. It grated on him that, because of Chief Williams' worry about Harry being a prime target, that he was replaced at odd hours by a number of different aurors, and never allowed on the scene for more than six hours in a given day, and only then following strict routes.

Grumbling again, Harry pulled out the small grid map - Colonel Roberts' idea to have their bait patrol in pseudo-random locations around the area so that any sympathisers had the greatest chance of seeing him - and marked off his most recent path.

'Jesse, finished my path 4D, moving to 5F when you're ready.' It took Harry longer than he thought to get used to not only the routes through the city, but the order he would take them in. He had to wonder if Colonel Roberts ever met Mad-Eye Moody, but from her orders and plans, he suspected they had not only met, but gotten along very well.

Just as he apparated to a nearby woodland, a wall of … he couldn't even describe it, stench was the nicest word. Harry could proudly say that Nick's Deathday party when he was 12 was probably one of the most disgusting things he'd ever smelt. But now he was having to re-evaluate that distinction, he didn't even want to know what the muggles were doing here.

Colonel Roberts was probably still annoyed at him for the 'insane not stupid' comments about Azkaban then. He'd have to find some way to apologise to her before his nose decided it was too much trouble to carry on working.

'Joe's gaping arsehole, what is that smell? ' Jesse had apparently just apparated nearby then. At least he wasn't the only one suffering. Harry grinned and pressed on his Eagle badge, connected with Jesse's with a Protean charm, it reminded him no small amount of the Galleons in his fifth year.

'Yes, yes Potter, very funny, now can you please get rid of whatever freaky spell you just cast?' Jesse was lucky they were using modified two-way mirrors to talk to each other, otherwise Jesse would have to arrest himself for flaunting the Statute of Secrecy.

'Sorry Jesse, it wasn't me, honestly I think it might be Colonel Roberts holding a grudge about my Azkaban comment a few days ago.'

'Alice is a mean witch, don't get me wrong Potter, but she's professional enough not to do something like this on the job.' Jesse's rebuke would've sounded more authoritative if it didn't sound like his nose was blocked. Harry thought that was a genius idea and transfigured a clothes peg immediately.

Now he could think without the worry of his nose falling off, Harry jerked his head.

'Jesse, could severe decomposition or anything smell this bad?' He hoped that they wouldn't round a corner to find a bile of muggle bodies giving off the disgusting odour.

'Shi-.' There was a pause mid curse from Jesse as he thought about it. 'No, nothing I know of first hand, but some of the native's spells to mark areas do use scent to mark certain areas. Never figured out why though.'

'Could it be some cuneiform curses that made their way over here? Or are we beating the wrong bludger?'

Silence from Jesse's end. Harry wished they had actual two-way mirrors, not just pieces in their ears, so that he could see the other Auror's face.

'I guess a message to the Near East Affairs Bureau to look into it.' Another pause, Jesse was trying to limit the amount he breathed in as much as possible. 'Smuggled curses is the last thing we need here.'

'Agreed.' Harry murmured, he already knew first hand the chaos they caused since turning up in Diagon Alley a few months ago The fact that they were probably in Knockturn even longer and could be used to explain some of the stranger curses the place was known for didn't fill him with much hope for the effect on America.

After a good hour scouting the forested area, Jesse's voice interrupted the monotony.

'What the ever loving fu-'

'Jesse?' Harry was worried now.

'There's a goddamn Doughnut Shop right here in the ass end of nowhere!' The American's voice sounded just as amazed as Harry first response in Harry's mind he would later blame on working too long with Seamus.

'Lay off the drinking, it does stuff to your head.'

'Hardy ha ha Potter.' Jesse luckily managed to get a grip on Harry's sense of humour fairly quickly - it helped ease the monotony of the days. 'Trust me, there is an honest to Merlin Doughnut Shop right here, I'm at O1 S5 near the scraggly rock if you want to see for yourself.'

Coordinates known, Harry made the trek to the other Auror. The two minutes it took to walk over, he didn't want to use the portkey unless necessary, he wondered what elaborate joke Jesse would end up playing on him.

Only to regret that thought when he saw the sign. 'Monster Doughnut Shop'.

Aside from the strange name, it wouldn't look out of place on any American street. Before he could make his way to Jesse, who was fixated on the shop, the dingling of a bell startled him.

Out of the shop door walked an honest to Merlin hydra . Well almost, Harry's long friendship with Hagrid gave him a much regretted insight into more interesting magical creatures over the years. It looked similar enough to a hydra, but the head shape was all wrong, the scales were purple not green, and it had one tail, not two.

Thankful for his invisibility cloak, Harry threw it around his shoulders and began backing up, hoping that Jesse's disillusioned self was following the footsteps he left.

Something must have alerted the not-hydra, four of its nine heads turned to the rock, where Harry guessed Jesse was backing away from. Harry hoped it was a coincidence.

No it wasn't. Going by the spit which nearly hit where Jesse was, going by the indents in the grass the Auror captain had thrown himself to the side just in time, his voice ringing out clear.

'Potter, I don't know where you've got to, I'm going to alert Command, backup should be here-'

'No' Harry sounded much calmer, mainly because he wasn't having to dodge magical spit that was already eating away at some rocks scattered around. 'This might be what the Six are up to, unlicensed breeding, and using US as a training ground. Then unleash them in Europe when they've perfected need to catch the Six, try and lead it on a chase, maybe one of them will turn up to attack you.' It sounded cruel, but it was more likely that Jesse would be used as a test subject for the imperfect hydra, whereas Harry would most likely be killed outright.

'You owe me a drink after this Potter.' Breathed Jesse, 'But sounds good, once I see another wizard or anything else though, I'm alerting Command.'

'Sounds good.' Unfortunately Harry didn't carry the badge that would send an alert to the Auror Offices of MACUSA for security reasons. Harry crept near some trees, still with his cloak on. He was still amazed at how much more his cloak could hide compared to other cloaks or disillusionment charms. Apparently it was also creature proof, that was good to know.

For the next ten minutes, the invisible form of Jesse, which the not-hydra seemed to be able to pick out easily, lead the creature on a chase around the wooded area, with Harry following behind the chaos completely undetected. No wizard, or any other person looked like they were around, and even though Auror training was tough, constant running and diving for ten minutes would take its toll on anyone. Just as Harry crested the top of another hill, Jesse's voice rang out in Harry's ear.

'Salem Salem Salem!'

That was the code to attack whatever hostile force there was, regardless of standing orders to hide. Jesse knew his limits, and knew exactly when not to push past them - an unknown magical creature was a brilliant example of just that fact.

The hydra had to be less than perfect, it lacked horns and wings, and didn't use it's body to ram things out of the way like the pure-bred hydras in Greece. That gave Harry an idea.

'I'll go for the body, I reckon its still weak if it isn't charging to attack you yet.' Harry barked. 'Stay at a distance.'

No response from Jesse, but if you were completely focussed on running there wasn't time for small talk.

Harry removed his cloak and stuffed it into his moleskin pouch while casing a blasting curse at the creature. It didn;t do much except cause the five heads that were looking around the area to now focus on him.

Two of the heads spat whilst the other three darted at him, but both Aurors realised their advantage, as Harry appareted and reappeared further back up the hill. The creature had nine heads, but only one body, as long as they could dodge the spit, they would be fine - hopefully.

Harry's next curse, a cutting curse aimed at one of the necks to limit the spit flying their way worked brilliantly.

Unfortunately he cast it at a monster that regrew two head for every one cut off. The cursing from Jesse, which included florid descriptions of Harry's immediate family, testified to the other Auror's feelings on the matter.

The creature, on the other hand, looked almost gleeful, before being thrown backwards, towards Harry, by Jesse's blasting curse. Well that was deserved, Harry thought, before aparating again slightly further away from hissing mass.

For a brief moment, Harry wondered if parsletoungue would work, dodging a dozen balls of spit flying his way. After trying to yell at it, and receiving no response whatsoever, and loosing a boot to the spit that he quickly threw away, he decided to follow Jesse's lead of cursing the body with fire.

That just annoyed the creature, now it began jumping everywhere and trying to use it's teeth to bite where Harry was, giving up on the invisible Jesse.

Harry was thankful that basic auror training, and his girlfriend, managed to keep him in top shape that he could dodge most of the fluid coming his way, his dragonhide robe took care of anything he couldn't dodge. Thankfully whatever was in the spit couldn't make it through enchanted dragonhide, or the inventive spellwork that Ron and Hermione coated it with.

Ducking, apparating and running, but always careful to keep himself in the creature's eyeline, Harry wondered what was taking Jesse so long.

Fire curses just slid off it's body, cutting curses just multiplied the heads, conjured rocks worked but Jesse was obviously not used to them, now he was dealing with twelve, and blasting curses just annoyed it.

His dragonhide robe was weighed down by the saliva of the creature, Harry had to be extremely careful about where he put his feed, the unbooted one especially. The robe was enchanted but the boots, gloves and trousers were all standard issue, and he was already fighting barehanded and with only one boot. His robe was so weighed down with spit that Harry was almost terrified to aparate again incase the spit ended up on his unprotected foot or hands. The creature seemed to know this as well, since it decided to stop spitting and now close in on the much slower wizard. It also figured out that digging its heads into the ground would stop it being blasted back too far.

Just as it backed Harry into a thicket of denser trees, the most wonderful sound he'd heard all day began.

The half a dozen cracks of apparition were heavenly. The myriad of cutting curses aimed at the heads less so.

It did give Harry a brief respite, long enough for Lieutenant Rogers to banish the saliva that was clinging to Harry's robe, and for Chief Williams to yell out.

'Distance twelve foot!'

Harry had no idea what that meant, but the Lieutenent grabbed him and side alonged next to Chief Williams, before aparating back somewhere else, just as now thirty heads began sprouting and hissing.

Colonel Roberts' voice boomed out, pausing at odd intervals to gag, Harry suspected.

'Cut the necks and cauterise them with your distance and don't let the spit touch you.'

A thirty headed hydra would have been almost impossible to kill for a single wizard, let alone muggle. For half a dozen of America's best Aurors, it took about five minutes.

The body was sunk into a quicksand-like floor, the uncountable drops of spit were intercepted by a ring of dozens of conjured rocks swirling like a tornado, and the now forty heads were cut off and cauterised quickly. One imaginative sod even conjured a flaming sword to do the job quicker, much to the cheers of some of the younger aurors.

Harry could barely keep his own transfigured rocks flying - cutting the heads and cauterising them took time, and the spit was still flying and eating through rocks that had to be quickly banished and re-conjured before the spit could make its way out of the protective circle and onto the surrounding Aurors.

Williams voice boomed out

'All clear, banish your rocks, let's take a look at this thing.'

2002, Virginia, Richmond, Incident Zone V021 (Harry Plans To Buy Ron And Hermione The Nicest Bottle Of Wine He Can Find)

The auror team were almost as efficient at setting up a quarantine zone, and taking evidence, as the Ministry Aurors. Well Harry was a little biassed.

He was sitting near the designated Weird Things Found table, which he was informed reliably was a backronym. He and Jesse were questioned by another Auror that hurried off quickly, and aparated away, apparently there were enough Aurors in the US that one could be assigned a specific role without needing to multitask. Harry wasn't too sure if he liked that concept or not.

He looked across at Jesse, engrossed at the pictures of the dead creature that was now encased securely and guarded by another team of Aurors - minutes after they thought they had killed it, the creature began writing, prompting another furious storm of flames and cutting curses.

Each time the creature looked dead, a few minutes later it would seemingly revive - Samantha Williamson was already hospitalised after getting too close to the apparently dead body that grew a head astonishingly quickly - no one had any idea what to do with it.

Captain Joseph James came up with the solution to put the Flagrante charm on the box, and cover the inside with similarly charmed blades so that when the creature did revive, it would kill itself again fairly soon.

It didn't solve the problem, but casting the Killing Curse wasn't something that any of the Aurors were comfortable with - particularly, Harry thought, with himself nearby.

So the incident tents were set up, one hosting the encased creature, with four Aurors standing guard over it, another covering the WTF table and evidence, and a third acting as the command centre, where the Aurors and arithmancers worked and the incident chief sorted through information.

Harry soon realised that what he thought were all aurors were in fact a number of different branches; most of the witches and wizards nearby were actually from the Virginia creature department, and there were only seven aurors present (including himself), the rest were made up of Investigators, Arithmancers and even a potions mistress, who was trying to find some way of holding the creature spit before it vanished or ate through its size of MACUSA didn't quite hit Harry until he counted and realised that all of the witches and wizards looking at this one strange case was almost half of the Auror Office in the Ministry.

'Well boys, what do we have here then?' Captain Elias Hogan came up, he was nominally the one in charge here, being a Virginia local. Chief Williams and Colonel Roberts headed back to New York to sort out something else that came up as soon as the hydra was encased.

'You'll love this, so the Doughnut shop we're looking at, well it's a franchise, and based on the couple that just turned up in LA, I'm guessing that the franchise may be connected to the creature in some way.' Jesse couldn't help but laugh through his own explanation.

After an hour of poking and prodding, Harry Jesse and two other Aurors couldn't find any other explanation for the connection between the strangely named shop and the appearance of the creature. Lieutenant Rogers and Captain James then moved onto the 'simpler' task of guarding the creature.

'Captain Adams, I have a beautiful deal for you that involves a house purchase in the enviable location of Atlantis if you are interested.' Captain Hogan didn't think much of their theory, but then again neither did Harry or Jesse - but it was the only connection they had.

When Jesse mentioned this - Harry was still deep in thought - Hogan sighed.

'Auror Potter, any thoughts?'

'Maybe a protean charm is connected to its heart somehow, when that stops, the charm covering a building in the US is dropped, showing the apparent shop franchise. Maybe it's a modification of a cuneiform spell. It could be used as a very strange warning system to the breeders that one of their hybrids has been compromised?'

The silence was heavy, Hogan realised that Harry had just said the exact same thing as Jesse, but dressed it up a bit better.

'That still sounds like utter crap.'

'Believe me sir, we both know that.' This came from Jesse. 'But we have a hybrid that we can't kill, the Hellenic Council hasn't got back to us about a missing hydra, and we have a goddamn Doughnut Store right in the middle of all this. We're kinda running low on theories.'

'Magic.' was all Harry needed to say before Jesse cracked up laughing. Even Hogan smirked at that.

'Okay you two.' Jesse finally stopped laughing to understand Hogan. 'Take the rest of the evening off, fresh eyes in the morning. And Potter, the Chief wants a meeting 10am sharp tomorrow morning, any and all ideas you have, bring them.' Was Hogan's final parting speech before he turned and went to interrogate one of the Beast Wranglers.

'Welp, I'm heading back to Queens, want to side along?' Jesse's offer was appreciated, but Harry knew that he wouldn't sleep if he didn't have some answers to this case. It was barely 8pm anyway, he'd worked much later at the Ministry than that.

'Thanks for the offer, but I need to clear my head, something is not right about this.' Harry's comment just led to a snort from Jesse.

'Understatement of the year pal. Well if you're sure, I'll see you 9:30 in the lobby.' With a casual salute, Jesse stood up and walked to the designated apparition point. Harry went to the same apparition point, but thought of the nearby city instead. Perhaps a floo call to the Ministry would drag up something. He knew that his name would open far more doors in magical Europe than a request from the notoriously isolationist MACUSA, despite how much he hated it. Vaguely remembering the address to an open Floo somewhere in Richmond, Harry apparated.

AN:

I'm using british spellings in the chapter because its following Harry's POV, Doughnut = Donut

They have killed the hydra, but without celestial bronze/imperial gold/godly materials, the creature essance is still attached to its body, so it will just revivie itself - luckily magic is a thing, but magic cannot kill mythological creatures, and conjured bronze won't work either, it needs to be specific celestial/godly materials

Hellenic Council = my name for Magical Greece (if anyone can think of a better name, please feel free to suggest one), and in this fic, Magical Greece keeps hydras in reserves, much like dragons in romania; the fact that one is in the USA means that the MACUSA-UK consultancy may turn more multinational (a not so subtle hint for anyone to suggest potential Greek names for some extra consultants I am thinking of putting in. otherwise you'll be left with whatever me and Google think is a greek name instead)

Next chapter: Harry meets Thalia/Luke/Annabeth