AN: One would think that focusing on one fanfiction and one serious book would keep them out of a creative vortex and one would be completely wrong. This took like two straight weeks. No lie.

Close Quarters

[1]

They had gotten anonymous tip that something was going down in Bracknell.

The place in question was a warehouse near the outskirts of the town. There were no lights on and all the windows had their blinds shut.

If there was anything going on inside, they couldn't see it. Which was probably the point.

Harry had his team scan the perimeter for doors. There was at least one on each side. All of them were locked. That wasn't so strange. This building had been abandoned a decade ago. What was strange is that they weren't locked because the local government had thrown metal chains across the door. In fact, they weren't locked in any visible way. But when Harry tried opening, his hand was immediately scalded.

"Shit!"

Ron came up beside him. "You okay, Harry?"

"Yeah, just burned my hand a little bit."

In truth, his hand now looked awful, like he'd put his hand to a burning stove and absolutely refused to take it away. He put a healing spell to it. While it didn't really do much for the wound, the pain went from a bright-white flaring to a dull but persistent burn. He was pretty sure it would be all right until he went to St. Mungo's.

Well the door was obviously charmed. So, if nothing else, their intel had been accurate.

"Okay." Harry said through clenched teeth. "We've drilled this before."

"Roger, sir." Willa said. She was petite and pretty but far too young.

"Don't call me sir."

Ron said. "Shouldn't we scout inside first?"

"Can't." Harry answered. "James has my cloak."

Ron stared at him. "...why?"

Harry shrugged. "To get into mischief with, Ron. Give me a break."

"I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time, sir."

"Willa, stop brownnosing." Harry said. "And don't call me sir."

"Sorry, s—I mean, boss."

Harry sighed.

They were at the southern entrance. Nero, Biehr and Bolson were at the western. Togo, Michaels and Uygur at the northern. Mahmoud, Rankin and Peer at the eastern.

Harry raised his wand to his right ear, said "Cationis." The wand began to hum faintly but it did not glow. "Prope stratus."

He could hear the voices of the Augers in position. He knew for a fact that their wands were humming too.

"Report." Harry spoke to the wand.

He was answered with a ceaseless river of profanity from Bolson, Uygur and Rankin. Each of them had been the ones to try opening the locked doors on their side and you didn't have to be a genius to figure out that their hands had gotten messed up too.

"Shut up." Harry said coldly. The profane parties shut up. "You aren't grade school students trying to impress the other kids with all the swear words you know. You are Aurors and you're talking to me."

Uygur and Bolson apologized. Rankin was silent. His attitude was garbage and Harry didn't care for him and knew the feeling was mutual.

Harry breathed in. Breathed out. Quickly managed to get himself under control. He'd gotten much better at controlling his temper. He had his kids and Ria to thank for that.

Almost immediately, he was back at neutral.

"Everybody ready?" Harry spoke into the wand.

"Affirmative." they all said at once.

"Ready and waiting."

"Roger."

"Count of three."

Ron aimed his wand at the door.

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

Ron's Reducto blew the door off the hinges. It was loud enough that Harry couldn't hear the sound of the others getting breached.

It didn't matter.

The newly broken door led to a large hallway, almost like a foyer. At the far end of the corridor, it hooked to the right. A figure rounded this corner. It wore all black, but had a white mask. Harry thought it was a man, and got his confirmation when he heard a male voice cry out: "Stupefy!"

Harry didn't deflect it with a Shield Charm, but sidestepped to one side while firing off his own Stunning Charm.

The brilliant bolt of red light dashed towards the dark wizard, whom managed to say "Proteg—" before getting struck and immediately dropping.

Harry's squad went in. Ron and crept up to the corner peeked around it. "Clear." he said.

Willa checked the downed man. "Sleeping like a baby."

Of course he was. The Stunning Charms of some wizards could do just that—stun. Harry's charms had been knocking people straight out for a decade and a half. He'd been proud of things like that back then. Now, it was just business as usual.

"Take his mask off."

Willa fumbled with the hood until it was down to his neck, then removed the mask.

A complete stranger, of course. Blonde and with a baby-face that had chubby cheeks. Half open, his eyes were as blue as the ocean. Willa closed them.

"Think he's an Equalist?" Willa whispered.

"He's got to be." Harry answered. The guy hadn't even used a hex or a curse, but a simple stunning charm. The man might have been an Average Joe, who'd wandered into trouble and tried to defend himself.

"Look at the mask." Harry said.

Willa did. The white mask had three thin black rings in the middle. They were in a triangle shape, two on top and one on bottom. All three overlapped with one another.

"Weird." Willa said.

"Not really." Harry said.

"When was the last time you fought a Death Eater, sir?"

"Not long ago enough." Harry said honestly.

After Binding the assailant, Harry turned his attention to Ron and the next hallway. It was still clear.

Not to mention long. It stretched all the way to the other side of the building, and there were tons of doors, too, on both sides of the hallway. Nearly all of them were closed, save for one in the middle and to the right. That one was slightly ajar. There was no light or sound coming from it.

"What kind of factory was this?" Ron asked.

"Quiet." Harry said. The door all the way at the end of the hallway opened. Whoever came through did so with Lumos activated, the light small but fairly strong. Harry raised his wand. He had decent aim, but knew for a fact that Ron's was better.

"Lower it!" Ron whispered harshly. "It's Rankin."

"How the hell can you see them from here?" Harry asked.

"No white masks, mate." Ron said.

Sure enough, no white masks. It was Rankin and his team. Ron waved at them. Mahmoud waved but Rankin gave his middle finger instead. Harry flipped him off back.

A door on the left wall opened. Harry pinned himself to the left wall and steadily closed in. Ron stayed at the corner behind him. Across the hall, Peer was doing the same thing.

A person came through the door. It was just Togo and his crew. Harry waved them off.

"Two contacts on the way in." Togo said. "White masks, black clothes. Both women."

"You Bind them?" Harry asked.

Togo's eyes suddenly bugged out. "Be back in five."

Togo and his team went off.

"Jesus Christ," Harry muttered. "I wonder if he has to be reminded to take the lid up before pissing in the toilet."

"Take it easy, Harry. They're still new." Ron said. That was true enough. He and Ron were in their late-30s at this point. Already they had seen some crazy shit. Perhaps not as soul-crushing as Malfoy and Nott disarming those dark artifacts but being a cop wasn't for the faint of heart.

Togo and his band of slapsticks came back. That just left the matter of the ajar door.

"Cover us". Harry said. He, Ron and Willa went in first.

[2]

This room was larger. The three of them quickly fanned out to different corners. There was a single large table in the middle. There were several books on it.

"Clear." Willa said.

"Some light." Harry ordered.

"Lumos." Togo said, and the light source was small but adequate.

The room was a series of contradictions. It was full of junk and clutter while at the same time being clean and orderly.

In the far corner was a large black bag. Harry toed it and heard a metallic clink of cans bumping together. He bent down and sniffed it. There was the subtle yet strong, corn-smell of alcohol.

In another corner was a bunch of sleeping bags. The wall to the left of the door was completely obscured by cardboard boxes. Harry obviously had no intention of opening each one, but did open the one on top. Electrical stuffs. Computer components.

The boxes were labeled too. Someone had written on them with marker. Most read "Discard." A few had "Keep."

Harry turned to the table and it was the same story here. Tons of books, far too much for table to reasonably hold. But the books were stacked neatly on top of the table. They were on the floor too but not scattered everywhere, instead neatly stacked on top of one another. The person had even made sure that none of them were poking out from under the table.

The books weren't dusty and didn't smell old. These hadn't been just abandoned. They had been moved—perhaps even read—recently.

"Harry." Ron said quietly.

Harry turned. "What, mate?"

Ron was looking at a piece of the wall to the right of the door.

Harry knew immediately what that meant. "There's a door there?"

"Yeah, I sense magic here."

"With vibrations going to your foot or something?" Rankin scoffed.

Ron flashed him a grim smile. "Yeah, something like that."

Harry exhaled through his teeth. He hoped it wouldn't be like that house from three years ago. The hidden door in that psychopath's house had required a code. The Auror department had actually had to call in a linguist expert to figure that out. The expert had been of the opinion that the psycho in question "Had spent too much time playing Silent Hill 3."

He hoped that this wouldn't be a similar issue.

Ron tried a simple Alohomora, which had no visible effect.

"Can you carve out an opening?"

"I can give it a shot."

"Stand back everyone." Harry said, although the team was already backing away, toward the cardboard boxes. "And duck."

Nobody ducked, but it didn't matter. Ron's Gouging Charm carved out a rectangle in the wall. It fell forward with a loud bang. Ron stepped spritely backwards. Behind the wall was a staircase leading down.

The plan was for them to go down and see what the hell.

But then something silly happened.

[3]

Before any of them could do anything, they heard footfalls coming from below.

A female voice, shrill and hectoring. "Dante, I swear to Jesus, I'm going to curse you into oblivion! The code is 022901! It's my birthday for shit's sake! STOP GOUGING OUT MY DOOR!"

The woman appeared at the top of the stairs. Harry's guard wasn't exactly down, but it wasn't tight either. That, as it had turned out later during questioning, had been the whole point.

A figure appeared at the stairs. Harry thought her eyes would be bugging out in shock, her mouth wide open to choke on her foot with.

No.

Immediately she was firing Body Bind Curses at them.

One struck Rankin, who screamed, then abruptly stopped, the dropped like a sack of potatoes. Everyone else managed to duck in time. Harry managed to duck and cast Expelliarmus at the same time. The wand flew from the woman's hand.

She teetered on the stairs, nearly falling down before righting herself.

Harry thought that was it. Then she withdrew another wand and started throwing Disarming Charms of her own.

Harry repelled one with a Shield Charm. It bounced into the ceiling just above the assailant, making her recoil.

She was immediately struck with five different spells; disarmed, stunned, and Body Bound at the same time. The force of it all knocked her down the stairs. She went down screaming. There was a sickening crack as a bone broke.

Harry immediately dashed to the top of the steps and cast Wingardium, just as another of her limbs smashed on another one of the steps. She was still screaming.

"Help me!" Rankin grunted.

He gestured with the wand, bring her floating body back up the stairs, doing his best to keep her from hitting the walls around her.

"Silencio." Ron said, and the woman screams were cut off. Harry placed her gently on the floor. She was still Bound.

The woman's face was a mask of agony. She had short blonde hair and slender features.

"Uygur, potion please." Harry said.

"Help me!"

Uygur withdrew one from his robes. It wasn't a particularly strong healing potion. It was mostly to dull the pain and was quite effective at that. Harry thought the woman wouldn't take it, which would be holding her head and forcing her mouth open, something none of the Aurors wanted to do.

But she took the potion. Her screams faded, and her face became neutral. She looked like she had either fallen asleep or passed out. She had slender features, giving her more than a passing resemblance to Draco Malfoy of all people.

"Remove the gag?" Ron asked.

"Keep her quiet for right now." Harry said, not liking the double entendre there. It made him want to take a shower. "You guys stay here. Me and Ron will see what's down there."

"I'm going with you, boss." Willa said.

"Fine."

"Help me for God's sake!" Rankin grunted.

"Can we put a gag on him, too?" Togo asked.

"Don't temp me, please." Harry said dryly.

Everyone laughed. It even managed to make Harry crack a smile.

[4]

He even kept up the smile as Ron, Willa and himself descended the stairs. It began to vanish when he heard a noise from below.

A captive?

He made it to the bottom of the stairs and looked around and saw that he was right. Four times over.

"Jesus Christ." Willa muttered.

This room was very large, completely dwarfing any of the ones above. It didn't have any of the clutter. The floors were bared, except for the objects in the middle. There was a box on the floor. It was in front of a row of four lawn chairs, no different from the ones in Harry's backyard.

The first chair had a tubby woman with grey hair. She didn't look like Harry's late Aunt Marjorie, but he thought of her just the same. And frowned deeply.

The second chair had a young black boy, who looked a bit like Dean Thomas if he'd fallen face-first into a hornet's nest. He was sobbing. In one hand was a wand.

The third chair was a redheaded pre-teen girl about Delphini's age. She was crying too, but not sobbing. Her blue eyes glared at the Aurors defiantly.

The fourth chair had a dead ringer for Vernon Dursley. The resemblance was so strong, they could've been brothers. So strong, Harry paused to stare at him to make sure.

None of them were talking, their lips frozen together. They had been gagged by Ms. Stop Gouging My Door up there.

Harry didn't remove their gags yet.

"I need you guys to listen carefully to me." Harry said. "We're not with that blonde woman who just left the room. I can't tell you our names or what we are. I'm here to help you. Can you guys walk?"

They stared at him with wide, trembling eyes. They didn't nod or shake their heads.

Harry released the Silencing Charm on Vernon's twin brother, since he seemed the most calm, which wasn't saying a whole lot.

"Hey, man. You a freak?" the man asked. "Like she was?"

His voice was so completely unlike Vernon's that Harry nearly laughed.

"We're not freaks." Ron said dryly.

"She could do freaky stuff with freaky powers." the man said. "It was insane, man."

"I bet."

Harry released the Silencing Charm on the black kid. He didn't say anything. He just sobbed with an unrestrained mouth.

The big lady was next. "I don't reckon you got any cocaine on you, right partner?"

Ron chuckled.

"Afraid not." Harry said.

"I really need some right about now."

"Good for you."

Ron laughed. It was cut off when Willa elbowed him.

The girl with the fierce eyes was last. And Dear Sweet, Merlin, did Harry regret it.

"You better take me home right now if you know what's good for you, you punk! You take me home right now or my dad will sue the shit out of you, you punk! His name is Terrance Brooklyn and he's the best lawyer in the Midwest! He's been practicing law for a decade and always wins his cases! And by the time he's done with you and that blonde bitch, you two won't have so much as an ass crack to shit out of, YOU PUNK! And furthermore—"

He wordlessly put a Silencing Charm back on her. He blinked unsteadily. He put a hand to his head.

"Wow." Harry muttered. "Okay."

Ron snickered again, and grunted when Willa elbowed him again.

The boy was still crying. He spoke at last. "I.."

"What?" Harry asked.

"I can't..."

Harry mentally slapped himself. They were still bound, of course.

"Don't worry. I'll release you guys, but I need some information first."

Actually, he needed information and to wipe their memories.

"What are your names?"

Vernon Dursley was actually Roger Garrett.

Garrett said the brat was Dede Brooklyn.

Nose Candy Enthusiast was Vicky (with a Y and not an IE) but refused to give her last name, because she thought Harry was a narco.

The crying kid was John Coffey (like the main character from that prison movie).

How did they end up here?

The stories varied. Garrett lived alone and had been napping in his backyard. He'd heard a small noise to his left but thought nothing of it.

Vicky refused to tell what she'd been doing. Harry could take a few guesses.

John remembered waking up in the middle of the night, unable to move. There'd been a person standing right beside him. He'd thought he was going to be eaten by a monster.

"I was wrong." John said. "They bring us here instead."

"Who? How many?" Harry asked.

"I don't know." John said. He sniffed. "When we was brought here, we thought she was going to kill us." He looked at the others, "Didn't we? Didn't we think she was going to kill us?"

The other captives nodded, except for Dede, who just glared angrily.

The kid looked at Harry. "But she said she didn't want to kill us. She wouldn't kill us unless we tried to scream. There wasn't people around but she didn't want us to scream."

"Why?" Harry asked. "Why kidnap you in the first place?"

"She said we could do like she does." John said. "She said we could make things float. She said we could turn birds into cups. She said we could blast walls wide open."

"You four?"

John shook his head. "No. All of us. All of us normal people. We just needed to have the right magic rod for it, just like that one you got right there."

"Wands." Harry said reflexively.

"Harry..." Ron warned. "Ouch! Damn it, Willa!"

"Sorry, sir."

John was crying again. "I tried, man. I really tried." He still held the wand in his right hand. It began to tremble. "I really did. I want to be able to do magic. I want to make things, float. But I can't. It never works."

He whimpered and choked the last few words out.

"S-s-she wasn't guh-gonna let any of us go unless one of us c-c-c-could do s-something. Any wuh-one of us, it didn't m-matter who. And she would let uh-uh-us all go if just one of us c-could do s-s-suh-something magical. I wuh-wanted h-her to l-l-l-l-l-et us guh-go but I a-a-also w-wanted to be a-a-able to do it."

Ron smacked his lips with disgust. His dark humor from before was entirely gone. "Terrible. Just terrible. Who would want to do something like this to people?"

Harry grinded his teeth together. Those miserable Equalist pukes, that's who. He knew about basically all the shit that was said at the open rallies but a much smaller fraction of the shit that was said during the more secret meetings. About how the sociological barrier between the wizarding world and the Muggle world needed to be eliminated and have both groups live in harmony.

It sounded nice on paper, and Harry liked to think positively about human nature. But he just couldn't see something like that happening in real life. The Muggle World had too many Uncle Vernons and Aunt Petunia's. If it wasn't bigotry it was envy.

The wizarding world wasn't perfect either. The idea of blood purity would never die out completely. It didn't matter that it had gotten its face kicked in twice. Now, the Equalists had risen up as a counter to it.

Countering it by employing much the same tactics.

Last month, one of the rallies in London turned into a riot. Ten people had died. Last week, an Exploding Potion had gone off in the Department of Mysteries. No one had died but Ford Fenburg (a janitor with high clearance) had lost both his legs and was now in critical condition over a Mungo's. That wasn't even going into all the death threats the Ministry received in a mail on a daily basis. A few of them mentioned Harry by name, which didn't bother him. But it also mentioned Ron sometimes, and his family. And Hermione and her family. And Harry's family with Ria. That did bother him.

Harry could duel well. He had no illusions or false modesty about that. But he wasn't invincible. Neither were his friends and family.

But this shit about Muggles being able to do magic, that was a new one.

Harry paused, frowning.

Was it?

Hadn't he heard something like that a long time ago?

He thought about it but wasn't sure. He shook his head. It didn't matter. What mattered was that if this was the Equalist idea of progress—kidnapping Muggles and forcing them to do something Harry was pretty damn sure they couldn't do—he wanted no part of it.

After that, it was just a matter of getting background information. Vicky McGlassStraw still wasn't talking and My Daddy is the Best Lawyer was still gagged. Upstairs, Rankin was already calling this in. Paramedics from St. Mungos were on their way. At the hospital, with a lawyer present, the Aurors would be able to use the Veritaserum in their pockets.

[5]

Harry left them and went upstairs.

"How is she?" he asked.

Togo looked at him. "She's awake now."

The blonde woman lay in the middle of the rough circle the Aurors had formed. Uygur and Mahmoud were covering the door.

The woman stared at him, jaw clenched so tight he thought it would snap, eyes fuming.

"What's your name?"

"Where's my lawyer?"

"Don't make me ask again." Harry warned.

The blonde bitch favored him with a smug smile. It made her look even more like Draco Malfoy. "You aren't scaring me, pig. I'm not giving you anything until I see a lawyer."

He slowly aimed his wand at her.

Her grin actually widened. "That supposed to scare me? You really think I can't see that Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers lightning bolt on your forehead because you got some bangs over it? You won't torture me, Harry Potter, and you won't kill me either. Because that would make you like them. The same goes for your backup dancers."

He lowered the wand. She had him cold.

He kept asking and she kept repeating. He kept asking until asking felt pointless and called in the Mungo paramedics, as well as the forensics team from the Ministry.