Chapter 8: 2002, Virginia, Richmond - Somewhere (Harry Really Wishes He Took Along A Map)
After walking for a solid hour through some forest, leaving the downtown area behind, Harry was getting worried. His planned Floo call would get put through at a ridiculous time, if he ever made it back, this evening, and he had absolutely no idea where he was going - so much of Muggle America was flat out confusing. At least he had somewhat talkative company in Annie Chase, less so in Luke Castellan and virtually nothing from Thalia. Well he wasn't going to complain, dealing with a hyper inquisitive seven year old took up most of his attention anyway.
The motley group eventually stumbled to what he thought was a run-down cabin that someone had forgotten to demolish. Harry really wasn't too sure on muggle buildings, it wasn't quite the Wild West look from Dudley's old cartoons, but it definitely wasn't new like the nicer cottages he'd seen on school trips. It was so obviously out of place that he couldn't think of a use for it except as a safehouse. Hiding three wizards and witches though, he just hoped it was a better story on the inside. It was the middle of nowhere, as far as he could tell, but apart from that, it didn't look like a liveable setup for a hidden 'base' like Annie had been describing to him.
"Nice place." But that comment was met with a grunt from Luke, who was busy, with Thalia unlocking and opening the heavy door, although Annie giggled, so Harry guessed he would take that. With a final grunt Luke and Thalia pushed open the door, if it took two people to move it, Harry guessed that was a good sign at least. He and Annie walked it, the girl already talking about how cool their "base" was.
The Auror looked around the cabin. It was nothing more than four walls and a roof over a few cabinets and three piles of blankets, sleeping bags and t-shirts. Definitely NOT the place for witches and wizards to use as a safehouse, let alone kids.
"Would you mind if I adjusted things a little?" Always best to ask permission, especially as this could be charmed and warded already.
"Er, what are you going to do, Sir?" A much quieter voice came from Thalia, who hadn't even looked at him for the entire trek. Harry had no idea why she suddenly clammed up.
"Just Harry is fine. I"ll just tidy some of the dust away, put in a small fireplace, and if you want I can change the blankets and sleeping bags into actual bed-"
"Yes please!" Annie cheered, Luke shook his head between Annie and the pile of blankets smiling but trying to hide it. Harry recognised the trying-to-be-cool look that most teenagers put up when dealing with 'kid' stuff. But that didn't stop him from starting a discussion with Annie on what type of bed they both wanted. Thalia just stared longingly at one of the piles of blankets. Harry recognised that look, and turned around to a small pile of stones and dust in one corner.
"I could transfigure a few rocks or something else if you would prefer, but it"s easier for something to already be similar." He knew that if he was 12 and someone offered to transfigure his cupboard, well it would be nice, but at the same time, the cramped dirty cupboard was his . That was the look on Thalia"s face, there must have been some blanket or something that meant more to her than the others. Harry began perusing the stones for a suitable alternative. The only reason his voice didn't give him away was experience. This was nowhere near the worst situation he stumbled across in the past five years as an of age wizard.
Just as he was about to select the flattest pebble he could to serve as a bed, the sound of ripping grabbed his attention. Thalia had gone over to her pile of blankets and torn something roughly in half.
"You can use this." she said, throwing the fluffy remains of a winter coat at him. It definitely looked far too touristy and large for any local teenage girl to have.
Barely catching it Harry looked at the remains, easy enough to transfigure but any patches that had been sewn on had been viciously torn off. Memories he guessed, but it would be rude to question something personal like that, especially as the other two kids didn't seem half as concerned. Might as well get on with it.
"Right, Luke and Annie, if you could move your own blankets to wherever you want them to be a bed, we can get started."
"Can I have a bunk bed? Please." This was hastily added by Annie, Luke just smirked.
"I'll go for a king-size bed."
Both children began shuffling their piles to their desired location.
"Ok, so first I"ll transfigure one thing for the frame, then you add something on top of that frame to act as a mattress, then put something else on top of the mattress to act as a sheet, then something to act as a duvet." He could attempt to transfigure a bed all in one go, but he wasn't nearly that good at transfiguration, anyway a bed was something that required finesse. If there was anything Harry learned from working long nights and snatching power naps, was that a good bed was worth its weight in gold.
It took far longer than he would like to admit, transfiguration was never his strong suit, but eventually two beds, or a king-size fluffy monstrosity and a rather utilitarian bunk bed with owls carved around it, were transfigured to their owner's satisfaction.
Luke had barely moved from throwing himself sprawling in the middle of the blankets and Annie was enthralled with the owl decorations on hers. Harry turned away to look at Thalia, the only reason the owls were any good was because they were modelled on Hedwig. It seemed fitting that she would carry on looking after another lost child, he couldn't imagine a better legacy for her.
Thalia was still looking at the beds, holding the patches, and just pointed at the space between the end of the two new beds.
"Can you put mine crossways, and just give me a mattress."
Harry was the only one to hear the near whisper of her request. He looked at the girl again, this time not ignoring what he could see.
She was thinner than Annie, just, and not much taller than the seven year old, and definitely shorter than most first-year Hogwarts students. She was definitely the leader here, and walked around with much more familiarity, like a sixth year student compared to a second year. And she wasn't used to a comfy bed.
After months on the run, Harry took a few days to settle back onto a Weasley bed, but when he first moved from his cupboard to the second bedroom, it took nearly a week for him to actually sleep on the bed for more than an hour at a time.
Thalia had been on the run, more than a year he would hazard a guess, but hopefully not too much longer, at least Luke and Annie appeared to be comfortable on actual beds so there was a small relief that only one of the three wasn't used to a bed.
"Err, sure, but do you want me to make up some bedding for you to put on later?"
"I"ll use my sleeping bag and blanket."
That was it, Harry resolved to stay with them when auror duties didn't take up his time. Three children surviving on their own, obviously struggling for food and the basics, he knew he couldn't leave them, regardless of Luke's protests that they were fine as they were. That, and their strange fascination with mythology, not to mention Luke's awe at relatively simple charms - Harry had no idea if the other two had ever been exposed to magic but he would have thought that the older boy would have recognised a wand. Stopping that train of thought, Harry began his next rags-to-matress transfiguration.
A matter of seconds transformed the sad remains of a puffy jacket into a serviceable mattress, Harry was wary of making it too comfortable, he knew what Hogwarts beds felt like and how difficult it was to sleep in the first three months after years of a cupboard camp bed.
Luckily Thalia just seemed to relax into it without too much trouble, and began throwing her blankets and anything else from her remaining pile of bedding onto the newly transfigured mattress.
"Hey, Thals, why don't you have a bed like us?" Luke was finally getting up from his own bed to see Thalia throwing together a makeshift nest of blankets, t-shirts and a black sleeping bag on top of the simple mattress.
Turning away, not getting involved in the brewing discussion that now involved Annie, Harry suddenly longed for a drink. He could probably argue Thalia"s case exactly as she would, but he didn't need to be part of it. Catching the odd phrases of Zeus and something about Hermes, he stopped paying attention and began to walk away to the kitchen area hoping that the taps worked.
Well the taps didn't work, and all of the cupboards were filled with bronze swords and mediaeval weapons. Harry really wanted to know what they were doing with all this, but as an Auror he learned to prioritise things, so a conjured glass and quick augumenti charm saw a much needed drink of water in his hand.
Rechecking the "safe-house", Harry realised that it was more a bolt-hole than a house. The priority appeared to be a weapon storage location that was out of sight - the one cupboard that did contain food was pasta and some powdered stuff, and the beds weren't even worth the name before tonight. The three children were all lying on Luke's kingsize bed, animatedly talking about something, Harry tuned out their words - he probably wasn't supposed to overhear them anyway.
He had to really think, if this wasn't somewhere safe for them, then why would they use it? Thalia had her mattress so that she could roll off it and defend the other two, Luke positioned his so that it also covered Annie's bed from the doorway. Those two were thinking of defence rather than sleep. Just how bad were the "monsters" that they were afraid of?
Deciding on a course of action, Harry moved to the doorway and began muttering under his breath. In the summer of '98 the remnants of the DA that were joining the Auror Office all learned the array of spells that kept Harry Ron and Hermonie safe during the months on the run, until everyone could cast them all in their sleep. It wasn't the first time Harry was grateful for the paranoia during the early months. Hearing the now muttered voices of Thalia and Luke, Harry almost missed the soft patter of Annie's feet making their way over to him.
"What are you doing?" the inquisitive seven year old asked, looking far too much like a smaller grey eyed version of Hermionie than she should.
"I made the door and windows stronger and hid them from muggles." Annie's face scrunched up at that.
"Could you do that for the entire house?" This came from Luke, who seemed to have the uncanny ability to listen in on anything. Harry made a mental note to check all his Extendable Ears before he left.
"And could you do the same for spiders?" Annie's voice made her sound like Ron.
"I'll need to walk around the edge of the house a few times to do it, and I can try putting a spider repelling charm around your bed." He said this last point to Annie, but he realised just before he walked out of the door. "Do you have any traps or anything dotted around?" If the children were worried about defending themselves and couldn't cast any charms around the house, then traps seemed like a Weasley-ish thing to do, probably sensible as well.
Thalia grumbled and Luke smiled and told Harry to "avoid the trees with any branches below head height", so the wizard set off.
Half an hour later, returning through the doorway of the house, Harry convinced himself he felt the slight push of the charms and spells now coating the ramshackle doorway - it had taken years of specialist tutorials but now he could just make out the vague otherness that was indicative of recent heavy magic. Of course the spells were not hidden in any way, and he already knew they were there, but he liked to think that it was finally paying off.
"Do you mind if I make a fireplace for something cosy - don't worry" he added, seeing the almost startled looks on Thalia and Luke's faces, "I'll put in some flames that won't actually burn you, just give off a bit of warmth." He could sympathise with their worry, he was reckless but he wouldn't give a bunch of kids an actual fire without any supervision.
Anyway, he may be biassed, but some of the best times in his life were spent with his friends in front of the Gryffindor common room roaring fire.
He didn't expect Luke to suddenly pale and Thalia to clam up.
"Yeah, sure, that would be great." Luke sounded slightly worried with that,
"It's fine if you don't want it, just an idea." Harry trailed off, only just realising that they could all be muggleborns that had explosive accidental magic, young children setting things alight during tantrums wasn't unheard of, and Thalia may have a reason to be wary of fire.
"Ok so no fire, do you cook or grab pre-cooked food?"
"Dude this is Virginia, everyone throws away good food. We don't need to cook anything when it's busy."
But it wasn't all that busy today, Harry thought of the backpack stuffed with crisps and foil packets. He'd already given them the sandwiches and chocolate frogs, and didn't have anything else on him. Sometimes he really wanted to find Gamp, and probably hex him or something.
"Right, I need to get back now." As much as keeping an eye on the kids was something he felt like he needed to do, he also needed sleep, and time to prepare for the meeting tomorrow, it was practically midnight. "I'll be back tomorrow morning hopefully with some breakfast if you want." Thank Merlin for expanded pockets and breakfast bars. Receiving three eager nods, Harry turned to the front door.
"Right, I'll drop by at 8am with breakfast, and maybe again around 6pm tomorrow if I'm not busy." Should give him enough time to send a request to the Hellenic council, or Hermione early tomorrow at MACUSA - actually it would probably sound better coming from her on his behalf or something like that, he was rubbish at official requests.
With barely a thought he apparated to an alley near his hotel in New York, just missing the startled faces of the three children as he vanished from sight.
2002, The Next Day, MACUSA Chief Auror Office
Harry sat in the Chief"s office, apparently he was waylaid getting a cup of coffee so Jesse told him to take a seat while he waited,
"He's not much for formality is our Chief." Although it was said with a grin that made Harry wonder if it was just for him that the lack of formality was extended just to him. Regardless of his name, Chief Williams was an auror when Voldermort took over the Ministry of Magic, and something like that was bound to influence his opinion on British Aurors.
Five minutes later, Chief Williams entered through a side door that Harry didn't notice before.
"Sorry Potter, bit of unexpected paperwork after I picked up a morning coffee. If your department ever thinks about using dicta-quills instead of secretaries, take my advice, don't ." A large sigh escaped the Chief, "Three Aurors were about to head off chasing a dark wizard, a bear and a wolf instead of a dark wizard werewolf ." Taking another gulp of coffee, Chief Williams pulled a stack of parchment over to himself.
"So, our strange hydra-Doughnut case, Hogan wasn't overflowing with ideas, and the damn thing"s still making a racket in the evidence room - we don't really know if it should be in evidence, a prison cell, or an animal pen?"
It took Harry a second, and a pointed look, to realise that the rhetorical sounding question, wasn't actually rhetorical.
"Safest option is evidence where it already is." It didn't pay to rock the boat, especially on his second day.
"Knew you'd agree," Williams shook his head with a wry smile "Some idiot from Species Protection wanted it put with them - thing nearly killed two of my aurors! Anyway, back to the point of this, you get any more ideas about where this thing came from?"
"Not at the moment, but I think we might find some leads in Magical Mesopotamia-"
"Ha! Good luck getting anything there, the No-maj's decided to completely wreck the place, a lot of their local government are either dead or not going into work. No-maj wars killing witches and wizards, makes you glad for the Statute doesn't it?"
The British wizard hoped this was a rhetorical question. He knew that the main reason the Death Eaters could infiltrate the Ministry so quickly was because half of their manpower was devoted to hiding things from muggles, so maybe such strict enforcement could do more harm than good.
He ducked the question by making some vague affirmation noises, apparently that's what Williams was looking for anyway.
"By the way, twenty more Doughnut stores opened up last night across the US. Jesse's theory about the stores connected to the heads is making a lot more sense now."
"I can't say that"s anything I've come across before, definitely not how Death Eaters work. Could some breeding experiments mixed with some cuneiform curses be the cause?" Harry hoped not - stories about mixing things like that were absolutely terrifying
"Already put a few requests in with the Greeks, and gone cap in hand to a few museums to check if anything's missing."
"Normal hydras don't look like that thing, and their heads don't grow back doubled. Maybe some idiot came back from Greece with extra luggage and began casting at it?" That was all Harry could think of. The heads were probably a gemino charm, the change in colour and the tail was probably aesthetic charmwork. That still didn't explain the weird Doughnut store.
"And the store?" Williams was again looking at Harry with a raised eyebrow. Both wizards knew that there was no explanation for the store. If it was a warning system, it was a very shoddy one, and if it was a practical joke, then why connect it to a very dangerous creature?
"No idea Maybe this was a grand opening or something and all of this is a coincidence?"
Chief Williams just stared back unimpressed. As jokes went, Harry thought, it was a pretty poor one, but Ron would've grinned at least. Chief Williams just looked down and fished out a scrap of parchment and handed it to Harry. It was a rough map of Richmond with another set of routes.
"Meet up with Jesse, you"re both going to be trawling through Richmond again today, see if you can dig up something."