Disclaimer: Just a thought turned into words.
Veteran
Charles had been fifteen when they came. A half trained school boy against four of the Dark Lord's own, it was a miracle that he survived, a pity he hadn't been able to save his family but miracles rarely come in pairs.
The first Auror on scene had been old school, threatened to arrest him for the murder of four upstanding purebloods and had promised cheerfully that the least he had to look forward to was a snapped wand and a wiped mind. Bastard had added that he'd be helpless when their family members came for a well deserved revenge. The second through fifth Aurors on scene had been much more sympathetic.
"Put down your wand, boy," the Auror ordered. "I'm arresting you for the murders of these poor boys. The fact that they were dressed as members of a proscribed organization was no doubt a prank in poor taste on their parts."
"What about what they did to my family?" Charles spat.
"I'm not convinced it was them," the Auror's smile deepened. "I think it far more likely that you snapped and killed them too. Not sure the courts will agree, but I'm sure they'll agree a proven danger like yourself should have his wand snapped and his memory wiped. Be a shame if these boys' families would choose to take their well justified revenge at that point. Now, boy, drop your wand or don't. Suppose it's just as easy to take care of things now."
The Auror's smile turned into a frown when three pops announced the arrival of three of his colleagues.
"Beat us to another one, eh Smythe-Warren?" the leader of the quick reaction force said calmly. "We'll take it from here."
The corrupt Auror left without a word.
"He was going to-"
"We know," the team leader cut him off. "I would advise you to keep your mouth shut if you want to survive."
"If you know, why don't you do anything about it?" Charles demanded.
"One of his uncles is on the Wizengamot, another is the Deputy Undersecretary to the Minister. We report it, we're done. Best we can do is to try to respond quick enough to prevent him from doing anything." It didn't happen often, hard to beat a man who knew where and when the attacks were going to take place before they occured.
The last two years of school passed in a flash but Charles took full advantage of all the teachers and library had to offer. He'd promised himself that night that he'd never be helpless again, he'd done his best to fulfill that promise.
Auror training had been pathetic, the force had lowered their training standards about the same time they'd lowered their admission standards. Muggleborn were welcomed, given six months of training, and handed off to a more experienced Auror for field training. A year later, if they survived, they were given a trainee of their own.
He'd been one of the lucky ones, top of his class he'd been given his choice of senior partner and he'd been sure to choose the first Auror that had responded to the attack on his family.
"Auror Smythe-Warren?" The training officer made no attempt to hide his surprise. "I'm not sure you want that one, son. He's not exactly friendly towards muggleborn."
"He's first on scene to more incidents than anyone else in the department," Charles replied. "I want action, I want revenge for my family, there's not an Auror in the department that will do more to help me get it than him."
The training officer spent several minutes trying to convince him to change his mind before giving up. Another life wasted, the woman had thought to herself. None of the trainees were expected to last long, it seemed this one was going to have one of the quicker careers. Better than losing another pureblood of course, but still, what a bloody waste.
His field training officer, Senior Auror Smythe-Warren, had made no secret of his opinion of muggleborn. That was okay, he hadn't requested the man to learn from him. His plan had been simple, the only thing he'd been worried about was the man remembering him. He didn't, Charles wasn't sure how he felt about that. The man had been present for the worst day of his life and he didn't remember it. Disgusted, Charles decided, it showed that what had happened to his family hadn't been unusual enough to bother remembering.
Senior Auror Smythe-Warren, a thirty year veteran of the force, had not survived the week. Hit by a dark curse, he'd died screaming. It was, even for the time, and extraordinarily unpleasant and painful death. Pity that. His next three field training officers hadn't lasted much longer for similar reasons. The fourth, Arthur Weasley, had been a good man. One with a lot to teach about investigations and other peace time law enforcement activities. Charles would have been sorry to end his training period if the man had been able to adjust his mindset to a wartime mentality. As it was, it had been a pleasant interlude to what was otherwise a very eventful career. It wasn't till years later that Charlie realized just how valuable the man's instructions had been. Then again, it wasn't till years later that knowledge of how Aurors collected information and solved crimes became valuable to him.
He'd been a field Auror for five, nearly six years when the war ended abruptly. Five years in a profession in which the average life expectancy was eight months, least for the non-purebloods. Most of the purebloods had been routed into the traditional three year training program and from there to jobs the higher ups claimed to be more important than stopping the psychotic murders laying waste to society. Bastards, all of them. The dark lord disappeared, the Ministry ended the war, and he suddenly found himself out of a job. Some of that was his vocal disapproval of the Minister's policy of selling pardons, some of it was due to his vocal desire to eradicate everything left of the dark lord's organization, some of it was due to his war time arrest record. Six taken in alive, all but two of which hadn't survived to see prison. Most of it was due to the fact that his father had been a greengrocer and that neither of his parents had been related or magical.
Charles was half way through a glass of scotch and three quarters of the way through the Gringotts guide to wards and ward breaking when he heard a knock on his door. Two Aurors, one a former colleague, were on the other side.
"Charles Riever, I'm here investigating the murders of three prominent members of society," his former colleague stated professionally. "Where you you last night?"
"Nice to see you too, Bones," he said cheerfully. "How have you been?"
"Answer the bloody question," the woman's partner growled, trying and failing to look intimidating. "One more bit of back talk and we'll have you in a room." He sneered. "We get you alone and we won't have to be polite about asking."
"If you thought you could have, you would have," he stated, amused by the boy. "You should be aware of what I was doing when the two of you were doing important things like making sure no one broke into the record rooms."
"I went on raids, Reiver," Bones said defensively. "I may not have your combat record, but I did my part."
"You did," he agreed. "All it took was your brother's murder to push you. Remind me again, how many combat actions did you take part in?"
"I've had enough," the puppy growled. "Hand over your wand, we're taking you in."
"Take it from me."
Bones' hand snaked around her partner's wrist. "Wait outside, Chalmers."
"You're going to let him talk to us like that, Bones?"
"I participated in sixteen actions during the war. Ten raids, three street fights, three arrests. He did over five hundred. How many did you do?" She was well aware of the fact that the man they were talking to was one of the deadliest magicals alive, well aware of what their chances would be if things turned nasty.
Officially, anyway. "Someone's been reading my record," Charles said cheerfully. "Look at it this way, puppy, your watch commander would have sent more people if he thought he could prove I was guilty." Or thought he could fake the evidence. "The only reason the two of you are here is so your boss can tell his boss that he harassed a muggleborn so it makes it look like he's doing something more than sitting around with his thumb up his ass."
Surprisingly, the man followed his partner's orders and left. Probably for the best, he reflected. It would have been fun. Unfortunately, it would also have prompted a rapid exit from the country. Something he wasn't yet prepared for.
"Want to enlighten me on what happened, Bones?"
"Three men were found dead in Knockturn this morning," she replied. "Minor families."
"Let me guess, bloodwork says they were highly intoxicated. Witness statements, if you could find any, puts them in several drinking establishments, a brothel, and possibly a gambling establishment or two. Why bother me with this?"
"Wartime intel suspected them to be low level death eaters, coroner confirmed dark marks at the preliminary inquest."
He shrugged. "Good riddance."
"You had the means and motive, I'm here to see if you had opportunity. So, where were you last night?"
"None of your business," he laughed. "More resources you have to spend trying to establish my guilt or confirm my innocence, more chance whomever did it gets away with it. Don't even care if it was a mugger or even another death eater, they did a public service."
"What are you doing these days, Riever?"
"Nothing much, mostly enjoying the overly generous pension granted me and the other wartime Aurors by the Ministry. Have to remember to send Dumbledore a nice thank you note for that, nearly covers half my rent."
"You knew you were a temp when they hired you," Bones said a bit defensively. "Numbers raised for the duration of the emergency."
"Only way they'd hire someone with a family tree rather than a family post," he agreed calmly. "How's the job? Better or worse than it was when people were regularly trying to kill you?"
"There's more paperwork now," Bones replied, apparently resigned to the fact that he wasn't going to tell her anything. "Moody's been grumbling about retiring."
"First he couldn't adjust to the war now he can't adjust to the peace," he laughed. "Contrary old bastard."
He was out of the country and onto his next adventure two weeks later. The next group of Aurors to visit his apartment did so the day after he left, there were twenty four of them and they wanted to ask several pointed questions about the murders of a number of suspected former death eaters. A pity he wasn't around to answer them.
Charles spent the next several years wandering. Six months here, a dozen weeks there. No fixed address, no fixed route, rarely with a visible source of income, movements nearly always watched by local magical law enforcement. The reason for that interest was simple, people died wherever he went. Most of them were purebloods, nearly all of them were confirmed or suspected death eaters. While not welcome in most magical societies, his temporary presence was usually tolerated. No suspicion was ever proven, and he had a habit of thinning the local population of dark creatures. Packs of werewolves, covens of vampires, tribes of giants, people began to take notice. Three years into his self imposed exile and people started seeking him out with offers of payment to take care of their dark creature problems. Most of them were sure to drop obvious hints that his presence would not be welcome after he completed his job, but still, it was nice to be appreciated.
It felt strange to set foot on his native soil. How many years had it been? Charles mused to himself as he walked through the castle town, reliving his school days. Nothing was the same. New shops had taken the place of old ones and the old ones that remained looked, smelled, and felt different.
"Hold it right there!" the town Auror called out in what he no doubt thought was an intimidating manner. "You're Charles Riever."
"And?"
"What are you doing back?" the Auror demanded, knowing the man was still a suspect in a large number of unsolved crimes.
"At the moment? Taking a literal walk through memory lane." Charles shook his head ruefully. "I hate to admit it, but I was surprised at how much things had changed. Leave for a decade and they move everything around and hide everything they don't move."
"You're here for a reason, tell me what it is here or you can tell everyone back at headquarters."
"Very intimidating," Charles complimented the man. "Do you practice that look in the mirror or are you just naturally scary?"
"Now!"
"I'll tell you what I tell most rozzers. If you thought you could get away with it, you would. You haven't tried, so you have some understanding of just what a bad idea it would be to try to force things." Charles smiled, it wasn't a nice smile. "Ask politely."
"What?"
"Ask politely and I might tell you," Charles explained. "Or didn't they teach you that in the academy."
For a second, Charles thought the Auror was going to go for his wand before the man relaxed. "Please tell me why you are here," he said through clenched teeth. Either things had changed in the department or the man knew just how bad an idea it was to try to use violence, likely the latter knowing the wizarding world.
"Something's killing unicorns in the Forbidden Forest, that's the sort of problem I deal with."
"Who's paying you?"
"Sometimes, doing good is its own reward. Did you have any more questions, or are you finished wasting my time?"
"I asked you a question," the beat Auror stated, tone firming again.
"I ignored it," Charles replied. "Now buzz off."
"I could take you in," the Auror threatened half heartedly, more for forms sake than anything else at that point.
Charles rolled his eyes, always the same bloody threat, idiot couldn't even think up a new one, just had to keep repeating himself. "No, you couldn't." He turned his back on the man and began walking away. The Auror did nothing.
IIIIIIIIII
The watch commander put a large picture on the wall, it was clear to everyone that it was a blown up copy of an official Auror obit pic. "Gather round, I wan't everyone to have a good look!" The watch commander bellowed. "Charles Reiver, one of the most dangerous wartime Aurors to come out of the department. Involved in over five hundred separate armed incidents, made six total arrests, survived five years doing a job most people didn't make their one year anniversary." His gaze swept over the room. "Well known dark wizard hunter, well known dark creature hunter, suspected of over two dozen murders in the United Kingdom alone. Seen by the Hogsmeade beat Auror earlier today."
Most of the Aurors on duty were too young to have experienced the war years, none of them was confident they'd be able to take down a man with that much blood on his hands.
"What do you want us to do, sir?"
"Keep an eye out, keep an eye on him if you run into him. Call for backup if you catch him doing something and wait for it to arrive before you try to make an arrest," the watch commander replied. "Boss is sending someone that knew him from the old days to sound him out. Questions?" He waited a dozen heartbeats. "Dismissed."
The young Aurors milled about for a few minutes before deciding as a group to seek wisdom from their elders.
Anderson was a twenty year veteran of the force, he'd seen it all, done it all, and survived to tell about it. He was also still a field Auror despite all that, no desire to take on the responsibility that came with rank. He was perfect.
"You kids look like you have a few questions you want to ask," the old man of the bull pen stated, leaning back in his chair.
"Charlie Riever," the spokesman blurted.
"What about him?"
"You know him, Anderson?"
"I knew him," the Senior Auror confirmed. "Not well, but I knew him. I was involved in twenty incidents during the war, more than most of the permanent Aurors. Official policy was that we were too hard to replace and thus too important to get used much, most of the heavy lifting was done by the wartime Aurors. Charlie Riever was the best of them, and the worst."
"I don't understand."
"Five hundred armed incidents during the war is just the official number, likely more than that." Anderson's jaw tightened. "Lad was a fifth year when they killed his family," Anderson explained. "He managed to kill every member of the raiding party while they did it. Gave him a real hate for the other side, lot of us suspected that he was spending his free time doing the same thing he did on the clock."
"We also figured he killed his first three partners," O'Reilly, another one of the older Aurors spoke up. "No one said much at the time, bastards were all sympathetic if no full members so it was no loss."
"Five more of him and we'd have won the war in a week," Anderson continued. "Course, we'd have lost the Ministry the next week when the bloody pols got stupid. Listen to the watch commander, do not get in Riever's way, not even if you have half the bloody department backing you up. Something broke in him when he watched his family get murdered. He doesn't feel fear, he doesn't have mercy, he doesn't care about anything but revenge. You get in the way of it, and you'll die."
"Department'll get him eventually, but that won't be much comfort to your family at your funeral," O'Reilly added. "We get orders, we'll do our best of course. Don't any of you be jumping the gun."
AN: So I'm not sure if it's gotten around but Yahoo has decided to finally kill groups off. What that means for me is that I'm moving CaerAzkaban to groups dot io, I've also set up a go fund me page to pay for it (Caer Azkaban Transfer). Prepare to update your bookmarks. Forgot this site stripped out links. Edited to fix things.
Omake: Catching Up
"Auror Weasley," Charles said with real warmth in his tone. "Good to see you."
"No longer Auror Weasley," Arthur corrected. "Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office."
"Congratulations, not many people get paid to do their hobby. What can I do for you, Mr. Weasley?"
"Arthur, please."
"Charles."
"Director Bones sent me to pass a message to you, Charles," Arthur continued. "I suppose she figured I was level headed enough not to start trouble and that you wouldn't start anything with me due to our history. Thank you again for saving my life, by the way."
"Not enough good ones in the world that it can spare one less," Charles said calmly. "What's the message?"
"The war is over, it's been over for years. Don't restart it."
"You may assure the Director that I don't have any plans to," Charles stated calmly. "So long as the other side behaves themselves around me and so long as Lucius Malfoy and his ilk aren't stupid enough to dirty my air with their presence, I will be a model citizen."
"That's not what she wants, Charles."
"It's what she gets, Arthur, and tell her to be happy I'm willing to give her so much," Charlies continued. "Tell her she's welcome to try to force her desires on me if she thinks she has enough men to spare."
"Mind satisfying my curiosity on why you came back?"
"I was telling the truth when I talked to the town Auror. Something has been killing unicorns, not many things do that, I'm curious to find out what it is."
"And then?"
"Then I'll kill it or, failing that, it will kill me," Charles replied. "Nothing so foul should be permitted to live in the world, let alone near a school filled with children. How are your two by the way? Should be graduating soon, shouldn't they?"
"Two became seven," Arthur laughed. "Eldest works for Gringotts as a curse breaker, your namesake is on the Romanian Dragon Preserve."
"Graduated?" Charles said weakly. "Where did all the years go?"
"I ask myself the same thing," Arthur laughed. "Can I offer you a drink? Bones approved an expense account for it."
"How can I turn down a drink on the Ministry's knut?" Charles laughed. "Come on, Arthur, you can catch me up on what happened in all those lost years."
Omake: Troll in the . . . never mind
"You children alright?" A face spiderwebbed with scars smiled down at them.
Clad in black dragon hide robes, roman sword on his hip, and an enormous pistol in a tanker holster on his chest, the man looked like what they'd imagined a defense professor to look like before they'd been introduced to the stuttering wreck that was reality. Though not a large man, his presence seemed to fill the hall making him appear a giant.
"We're fine, sir," Harry stammered.
"Good." His wand disappeared up his sleeve. "Hit it with a tripping hex next time something like this happens, then run and slick the floor behind you."
"We haven't learned either of those spells in class yet, sir," Hermione piped up.
"Oh, well, I suppose you'll learn all that by the end of the year," the man said kindly.
"Yes, sir," Harry agreed, resigning himself to the fact that desperate battles with trolls was commonplace enough in the wizarding world that children were expected to know the best way to survive them. Oh well, even with that, the school was still better than having to stay with the Dursleys. The boy's dropped as he thought of the waste that was their defense professor, maybe it would be best to spend more time in the library if he wanted to make it to second year.
Omake: Dumbledore
"Mr. Riever, it's been some time since you last walked these halls," Dumbledore's smile was made of steel. "Why are you in my school."
"Good to see you again, Headmaster. Been a while since the day I got called to your office."
"You put three students in the hospital wing, Mr. Riever. My question."
"Put them in the morgue two years after I graduated," Charles added cheerfully. "May not have had to if you hadn't been so lenient with them. You can't just hex someone for insulting your dead family and saying what a pity it was they didn't get you too, Mr. Riever," he mocked. "Not even if there are five of them and they attack you first."
"The question, Mister Riever!" Dumbledore growled, knuckles white on his wand and in no mood to return to old mistakes, not until he assured himself that the monster in the hall was not a threat to his current students.
"Was looking for the thing that's been killing unicorns in the forest when I came across Troll tracks," Charles said calmly. "They led me here."
"I see."
"I'd never be able to forgive myself if a student had come to harm due to my inaction. One of the many ways we differ, I suppose," Charles said, turning to walk away. "I'll show myself out, I still remember the way."
"Our conversation has not finished, Mister Riever!" Dumbledore stated firmly, he was unsurprised when the former student ignored him. "Damn." The man was one of his many failures, one who had held so much promise until the event that he'd allowed to define his life. "Can't I go a day without being reminded of old regrets?" the old man muttered to himself. "Just one bloody day?"
Omake: Snape
Charles' eyebrows when up when he noticed exactly who it was that sat next to him.
"I presume you're here for me," Hogwarts professor of potions stated calmly. "Here I am."
"What makes you think that?" Charles asked, curious to hear the man's reasoning.
"You have a bit of a . . . reputation," the former death eater replied. "One my sources say you have done your very best to live up to. Five of my former fellows fled to Romania. You visit the country, ostensibly to deal with a particularly troublesome vampire, none of my former fellows is alive when you leave. So, shall we find a bit of quiet forest and get it over with?"
"Just like that?"
"I spend most of my time in a school surrounded by children," the man stated. "Better to do things in a place that doesn't risk any of them."
"You, Severus Snape, are something very rare. Do you know what that is? A death eater who earned his pardon." Charles took a sip of his drink. "What's more, you earned it before the bastard fell, meaning you didn't use information in place of coin. After the war, you stood before the court and refused to speak a word in your own defense." He took another sip. "Means you get a bit more consideration than the bastards who bought theirs. That answer your question?"
"You really are here to find the creature that's been killing unicorns," Snape said, tension leaving his frame.
"Which is what I keep telling everyone."
"No one believes you."
"Which I have to admit is a bit vexing," Charles laughed. "My reputation is that of an unrepentant killer, not a liar. Out of curiosity, what was your plan?"
"I was hoping to find a chance to slip you a potion before making myself known," Snape replied. "Failing that, I had three areas in the forest prepared for our duel."
"Four," Charlie said, noting the way the other man paled. "Oh, and I spent the last few years building up an immunity to the iocane powder in your right pocket. I'm still alive despite the large numbers of people willing to spend gold and time to change that, Severus Snape. You are a school teacher. That said, it was one of the better attempts I've seen despite that. You'd have been a nightmare if you'd stayed in the business."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
Omake: Motivation
"What else am I supposed to do?" Charles asked. "My war record meant no one would hire me," he laughed. "Worse, it meant I got harassed by the desk poodles every time a death eater stubbed their poor widdle toe. It pays well, I enjoy it, and I'm good at it. Find something that meets those criteria with an employer that'll hire me and we'll talk."
Omake: Namesake
"I know him," Ron said suddenly. "He was one of my da's old partners in the war, da says he saved his life later."
"What happened?"
"Da doesn't like to talk much about what he did in the war," Ron said quickly. "Don't know much, but they got ambushed by seven of you-know-who's minions when they were out on patrol. Da says he was about to get hit by a killing curse when Charlie Riever banished something in front of it. Day says that if he'd been with anyone else, they'd have been finished and that the rest of the story is not fit for decent company. Mum says she and da decided to name Charlie, my brother, after him as thanks even though he'd already been born."
"They changed his name?"
"Nah, he was already named Charlie but he wasn't named after anyone. That's what they changed."
Omake by ubereng
There's more paperwork now," Bones replied, "And it's just as fishy as it was during the war."
"Oh?"
"For example, Ludsthorp keeps asking about the incident reports he says he filed for Little Whinging or Harry Potter. Says he can't say anymore. But I never got those reports, and they're not filed. There's not even the required Writ Of Silentium. And all required records for the Potters are missing, not logged for the last 30 years, and no writs filed."