Witness
AN: Better late than never, right?
[1]
She knew something was wrong as soon as she Flooed into the Auror Department.
For one, Harry had sent her a note, saying he forgot his dinner at home. The last time he left his late night dinner at home, Shacklebolt had still been the Minister of Magic. It was that long ago. Leaving dinner at home meant going to a restaurant. If it was a Wizarding restaurant, that meant people bothering him. Oh, Merlin, it's Harry Potter! Mr. Potter, can I have your autograph? Oh, Merlin, it's Harry Potter, the traitor. What's your problem with the Equalists, huh? Since when did you have a problem with people standing up to the pure bloods?
Of course, he could just go to a Muggle restaurant, but his subordinates would want to go with him. For protection and all that rot. He liked them well enough, but he just didn't want to be bothered with them outside of the office or an operation. Only Willa was Muggle-born and could actually blend in with them. The rest just stuck out too much. And no matter which way you sliced it, it meant he didn't want to be seen in public with them. And no matter which way you sliced that, Ria thought it sucked. She felt like he was withdrawing from people again, just like he had in school.
For two, it was 10:15 pm and there was nobody here. She'd been to the Auror Department more than a few times since she'd been with him, always to check in whenever she received word that he'd gotten injured. There was always someone here, even a skeleton crew in the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes her husband was among them, especially if they were working on a difficult case.
She walked across the empty department, the big bag of food in one hand, feeling more and more paranoid, until she reached Harry's office at the far end. Inside, her husband sat at his desk, with a piece of paper in his hand, not writing anything on it, only staring at it. On the right wall, he'd apparently thrown his robe on the rack instead of hanging it up. He must have missed as the robe was crumpled on the floor.
"Harry?" she asked. "What's wrong? Where is everyone?"
He didn't answer her but asked. "How was Madrid?"
There was something in his tone she didn't like at all. She felt the question behind that one: What were you doing in Madrid? In fact, what are you doing? What are you doing when I can't see you doing it?
"It was good. Delphini and I had a good talk. There won't be any more fights at Hogwarts or anywhere else and…" she trailed off. Harry wouldn't look at her, didn't answer. Just kept staring at that paper, studying it. Ria thought about placing the food on his desk but decided against it.
"Delphi, she at home?" Harry asked.
"Yes, she is. Like I said, we—what's that you have there?" she asked, pointing to the paper he held.
"Our old marriage license—or the legal contract." he shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever."
She swallowed hard. "You don't want a divorce…do you? Do you think I went to Madrid to cheat on you?"
But he wouldn't answer that either. "I've just been thinking." he said.
"What about?" she asked quietly. She quickly glanced over her shoulder, to see if anyone was behind her.
"I was just thinking about back in Hogwarts. You were there when I attacked Draco in the bathroom in Hogwarts."
"He attacked you." Ria corrected.
The debate of whether he or his childhood rival threw the first spell in a school bathroom decades ago was of no concern to her husband, who pressed on: "You were there when everyone pointed their wands at Pansy when she wanted to turn me over to the Death Eaters. You were there when I gave Neville the Sorting Hat to pull out Godric's Sword if he needed it. You were even there when I killed Riddle."
"I was." Ria said in a low voice.
"You were always right there, seeing things, even when I didn't see you."
Were they finally here? After so long? She breathed and said: "It's funny, isn't it? How we don't realize things have happened until long after they did?"
"I don't think it's funny at all." he replied.
"What are you saying, Harry? What's wrong? Tell me."
Harry raised his head at last. He'd been crying. His eyes were puffy, bloodshot and bright with awful knowledge. Yes, they were here. After so many I-love-yous, after three kids, after so many lasting memories…the day had finally come.
He choked the next words out:
"Astoria. Are you the Witness?"
She would be lying if she were to say that she wondered if he would ever ask that question. Ria thought that, in time, he would. So she really didn't much care how he had found out, what chink in the armor was found, what crack someone had slipped through. Didn't really care if it was a spy she somehow didn't screen. Didn't care if it was some type of a recording bug she somehow didn't detect. Didn't care if that Stevenson idiot somehow remembered something after all. And didn't care if it was all three…or a thousand other things.
What her answer would be to that question, now that could drive the sleep away. She wondered if she would answer at all, choosing instead to draw her wand and throw curses at him. She wondered if she would try to lie, if there would even be any use in trying. But the question was out there now. It was between them. If she lied now, it would stay between them for the rest of their lives. The question would never grow smaller, only larger, until neither one of them could ever see the other. Their marriage would probably end. One of them might even die tonight. The world would turn against her. James and Albus would hate her. She would become a subject of scorn, maybe for the rest of time. But in spite of all that, she felt relieved anyway. Her double life, her two separate faces: all of that was over now. From this day forward, there would be no more lying. About anything.
She swallowed hard. Then: "I love you, Harry."
"Please…just answer the question."
"I…I never wanted to keep secrets from you." the Witness said.
"Oh, God, Ria. Oh, God." His face contorted, equal parts misery and horror. Tears ran down his face, and it killed her.
"I really didn't. If I thought you would come around, I would have told you from the beginning."
He began to sob, hands over his face.
"Things are better now." the Witness said calmly. "Hermione has done so much. Things are better, but not as good as they could be."
He stood up suddenly, fists balled on the desk. "The hell are you even talking about?!"
"Harry. I'm talking about our history." she said, not flinching from his reaction, losing none of her calmness. "The history of the Wizarding World. Do you even realize how many Muggles we have killed? My father was in Records, remember? I've seen the documents. Gleeson Knotwood's Account of Muggle Casualties. I'm not gonna bullshit you and say it puts World War II to shame, but it certainly tries. 10 million. Another 5 million just 'unaccounted for.' Do you know how many actual Muggles have killed actual witches, actual wizards from the beginning of the recording of magic up to last year? It doesn't even break four digits. Hell, it barely made it to three!'"
All Harry could do was shake his head, and that gesture, that disappointment washed away the calm and replaced it with dull rage.
"I'm talking about the fact that in spite of all this, wizard kind always has this attitude of hiding from the Muggles because they're dangerous. 'They might try to kill us.' Yeah, with fucking what? Bullets, grenades, rockets, flamethrowers—none of that stuff can go through magic. None of it can break a shield charm, not even one made by a damn child. So what does that leave them, Harry? Nukes? And drop it where? Our world is intertwined with theirs. You break a bone bad enough, you rip the muscles next to it. You nuke Hogsmeade, you take out the Scottish village not even three feet away! They have NOTHING to threaten us with! That's the fucking problem! We can treat Muggles however we want because they can't DO anything about it!"
"You're crazy." he said.
"Crazy?" she laughed loudly. "No, the United States was crazy."
"It wasn't that bad!"
"That asshole screamed at his son for talking to that Muggle girl! Like he was a prince talking to a pauper! Like he was better than that kid just for being born! How is it the year 2030 and people are still making the mistakes?! No one is above anyone else!"
"Ria. Stop."
"I told you, everyone can do magic, Harry!"
"I don't give a damn if everyone can play a fucking violin with one hand and jack off with the other!" His scream echoed through the empty department. "You're a criminal, Ria! You're a terrorist, Ria! There's a damn bounty on your head for 1 million US dollars, RIA! Do you get that?!"
She just shrugged. "Dumbledore and Snape were criminals at one point, too."
"Don't you dare say their names." he hissed.
"Now, they're heroes." she said. "Nobody even seems to remember how they treated you. Dumbledore setting you up to die. Snape, a grown damn man, bullying students—literal children—just because he couldn't have your—"
An insanely fast blur movement and his wand was leveled at her, but was knocked to one side by the thrown bag of food she'd been holding this entire time. Her own wand was up in a flash and she threw a stunning spell. Harry sidestepped and the spell shattered the plaque on the wall behind him. He cast a disarm that she shielded easily.
She backed out of the office and took cover against the office's glass wall.
"Harry…" she said. "Let's not do this. I don't want to fight you."
A burst of red light came sailing at the glass wall. It was supposed to be magic proof, but apparently no one told the stunning charm. The glass wasn't disintegrated. It was atomized. She dropped into a sitting position behind the glass wall's stone support, not even shielding her face from the debris because there was none to be had.
"You don't really wanna hurt me." she said. "Do you?"
"I don't know." he said, which was the first thing he ever said that had hurt her. "But it won't be up to me what happens to you."
As if on cue, the closed doors of the Auror Department began to open and here came the cavalry, just about everyone on Harry's team: Willa Gunther, Bob Bolson, and Stan Uygur.
"It's over Ria."
Indeed it was.
She stood up and raised her hands in surrender as the Aurors came around the cubicles. Their wands were drawn but not pointed. They walked directly past her and came up to the stone support, staring at him instead of her. She
"Guys?" Harry asked. "What are you doing? Where's Ron and Radagast?"
None of them answered him. Willa looked at the Witness and said: "Glad to see you."
"You couldn't have warned me?" the Witness asked.
"You know communication is screened here." Willa said. "It's hard to get anything in or out. Even our homes are bugged to an extent."
All of them pointed their wands at him. Harry was so shocked, he couldn't even get the shield up in time and he was disarmed. At the same time, Uygur Accio'd the Harry's wand right into Ria's grasp. He stood there, gaping at all of them.
"Anyone else around?" the Witness asked.
"No." Bob Bolson said. "Harry, he—he ordered them home. He was afraid of spies"
"Everyone but us." Uygur said.
"You…" Harry's mouth barely seemed to work. "You…"
"You what?" Willa asked, grinning. The respectful tone she had always taken with him had flown the coop. "You traitors? You moles? You backstabbing, scumbag assholes? Get a move on, boss. We don't have all night."
The next sentence started off furious but then tapered down into fear. "You pieces of—where's Ron?"
"He's taking a nap." Bob Bolson said, apologetically.
"It's worse than a nap, I would say." Willa taunted.
"You better not have killed him." the Witness said softly. "We don't do that."
Willa became meek at once. "N-no, boss. Of course not."
"You see, Harry…" Bolson fidgeted with his hands. "We couldn't let him and Rankin get in our way and—"
A stunning charm hit him directly in the back. His body went somersaulting over the stone fence and he came to a thud on his back, groaning.
Purely on reflex, The Witness spun around cast Sectumsempra before she even knew who had surprised them. The crystal blades released from her wand, and it took her so long—far too long to realize that that it was her son. It was Albus. Her mind flashbulbed to years to years ago, forcing her son James up into the air and Al getting him down again. He had raised a wand against her that day, something she had always assumed James would never do, in spite of all his bravado at school. Only James was here too, standing beside Scorpius and Rose Malfoy. And just like with Harry and whichever mistake had brought out the revelation, the Witness didn't much care how they had gotten here or why they were here. It only mattered that they were here. It only mattered that while Malfoy's kids were able to get out of the way of the wounding curse, Albus was not.
The crystal blades passed through him, slicing him. He did a quick about-face and his face hit the floor.
"Al!" she cried with misery and horror.
Behind them, the Man Who Lived went berserk.