Chapter Text
Harry Potter checked his watch, before he stopped. And while he stood there, watching the small second hand racing around the never ending path, he realized that once again for the second time in one week, he was late.
Charging through the white and black halls of the Ministry, he slithered around the corner only to collide head first with another Auror, throwing papers everywhere and landing on top of him. At least he had an easy landing.
“I… I’m… I’m so sorry!” Harry stuttered only to realize who he was laying on. Draco Malfoy. Shit.
The blond wizard rolled his eyes, pushed him to the floor and got up himself. There were still parchments and papers flying through the air, which Malfoy without using his wand brought back to one neat pile. He turned to Harry and raised his eyebrows, judgingly.
“Late again, Potter. I you keep this up, you might end up being the fastest new Auror to be fired.”
Harry huffed and wordlessly got up. He didn’t need to say anything to this idiot, especially with what he had been going through the last few days. However, Malfoy was correct. He really needed to get his tardiness under control. Turning around, he jogged around the corner, even though he heard Malfoy calling something after him. Whatever he had wanted to say, it could wait.
In the huge Auror office, the sheer noice of people talking and discussing files made Harry wince. He bit his lips, angry about a reaction he should have under controll by now and shook his head. He tried to sneak towards his small cubicle, however, he was soon found by Ronald Weasley, sporting a rather huge black eye.
“Hey mate, where were you? We had a meeting with Kingsley first thing today.” Ron tilted his head and shook a strain of hair out of his face that seemed to bother him.
Harry shook his head and couldn’t contain a smirk creeping to his face. “Ron? What happened to you? Never mind my constant Paparazzi problem. Why do you have a black eye?”
Sighing, Ron rubbed the back of his head and bit his lips. He looked sheepishly and finally shrugged his shoulders. “Well yeah, Nott’s been a pain in my arse and he said how easy it was for ‘Mione to get over our relationship. I think he hates me.”
“Sure he does, mate” Harry smirked.
Even if Ron had been able to see his sarcasm, he didn’t comment on it. Throwing his bag into his hands and pushing him to the exit, Ron finally filled him in on what was going to happen now. “Let me get you up to speed – we have a mission as the youngest Aurors. And also probably to get to work with others.” He sighed. Harry shook his head and was just about to ask, when they walked out of the huge Auror department, just to find Theodore Nott standing there.
“Hello fellow Aurors” he said smirking. “Welcome to our first solo gig.”
“Very funny, Nott” Ron hissed and rolled his eyes again.
Harry narrowed his eyes and looked from his best friend to the Slytherin Auror. These two had been in an unfriendly discussion ever since they first started and no matter what topic Harry tried to discuss with Ron, it always ended up surrounding the Slytherin. It wasn’t really hard to see through these signs. At least not for him.
“Oh, I’m not kidding, Weasel!” Nott shrugged his shoulders with a smirk on his lips.
Before this could escalate and Ron would end up with two black eyes and no way to see for a few days, Harry decided to stop these two fighting men. “So, what is our first solo gig then, Nott? I happen to be a little late and haven’t gotten the needed information.”
Nott nodded and smirked. “The house by the lake. Aurors have been trying to get inside and find out what’s inside for a few centuries by now, but nobody seemed to have success with it. So for some very unknown reason, they tasked us four with the mission of getting inside and figuring out what it is and whose it is. And also, if it is in fact harmful, to eliminate it.”
Harry frowned. “Us four?”
“Exactly, Potter.” Another voice made Harry sigh. He didn’t even need to turn around to see who was standing next to Ron. Malfoy stepped next to Nott and looked at the two Gryffindors. “Apparently, Kingsley wants to unite his Aurors and we have been a thorn in his side – so, he chose a mission for us that first of all isn’t supposed to be dangerous, and secondly could bring us potentially together, should anything happen.”
“So, you’re saying, Kingsley hopes something bad is going to happen?” Harry sighed again. “Marvelous.”
Nott shrugged his shoulders and they silently walked to the Apparating Chamber, everyone with their bag and probably a silent wish that this mission was going to be over as soon as possible. At the AC, the four Aurors showed their badge and were led into a black room. Once everyone was inside and the ddoor firmly shut, the magical flow surrounded all of them and they were sucked up as if they had been standing in front of a vacuum cleaner.
Landing rather hard on the ground, Harry rolled to the side and luckily escaped the probability of cracking his foot. He really needed to get used to the Ministry way of things. Getting up, he saw that all of his companions had found their own way of eliminating these problems. Though everyone was lying on the foor.
So, he turned to the scenery in front of them. They were surrounded by forest and with the singing birds and the deep blue sky; this early spring day seemed to be the most perfect one yet. Nott held out a compass and motioned towards the place they needed to check out. And so, they followed Nott’s lead through the quiet forest. The cracking branches under their feet were probably scaring away all wild animals and within a few minutes they had safely reached the end of the woods.
As if the landscape had wanted to show Harry that what he had seen wasn’t gorgeous enough, he saw the most stunning scenery ever. The green grass looked almost juicy and the dark blue lake reached towards the sky at the horizon. There were birds flying at the sky, fishes swam around the center of the lake and there, close to the lake, with a sandy beach almost at the front yard, sat a dandelion yellowy house. Its two stories looked so innocent and the chimney on top seemed to have its own secrets –since magical houses barely had normal working fireplaces.
Nott and Malfoy had almost made it half way when Harry finally started walking. Something here seemed so familiar, yet unknown. He wasn’t sure if he should warn his fellow Aurors, though it seemed ridiculous to warn them of a feeling. They hadn’t gone through the same thing Ron, Hermione and he had. And even though Hermione had her own problems right now and told them, that after the messy break-up she and Ron had, she didn’t want to see the two of them right now, Harry still received and wrote her letters. Ron would have probably listened to his weird feelings, but he didn’t want to involve him as well. And so, by the time he had reached the door, Nott and Malfoy were already trying to enter with force and all kinds of magic.
Ron frowned at them and chuckled. “Don’t you think that other Aurors might have tried it like that before?”
“Okay, Weasel, if you’re so smart, go try it yourself!” Nott glared at him and Ron smugly pulled out his wand. Harry rolled his eyes, already somehow knowing that this wouldn’t work.
He turned away and walked around the corner to the boarded up windows, hoping he could get a small glance into the house. As luck would have it, he was actually able to spot a board that was only half closing the window. And so he looked through it and found an almost empty looking living room. The yellow couch had probably once been white and the table and chairs had so much dust on them, that it was impossible to see what color they were. A huge picture of a small looking ship was hanging on the opposite wall, with two men standing on board, waving. It seemed to be a magical picture, since they were actually moving.
Harry chuckled and turned to check where Ron was at, just to find Malfoy there. Jumping slightly, Harry held his chest.
“You scared me!”
“What are you trying to do here?” Malfoy asked and pointed at the boarded up window. Harry frowned. A second ago, he could have sworn that there was a gap between the boards so he could see inside.
If he were to tell him what he had seen, the Slytherin would surely call him an idiot, since he couldn’t really have seen the inside of the house. “I was trying to see if we could find a place to get in – except for the door.”
“Apparently, Aurors have tried everything. Including getting in through the chimney, but it seems to be protected by a magical force field” Malfoy explained and waved him back to the front, where Ron was on his knees trying to force the door open with a Ministry level entry spell through the lock.
It still wasn’t working. Next to him, Nott was leaning against the house, his wand between his teeth, looking out onto the lake.
Finally, Ron sighed, sat down exhausted and leaned against the house as well. “It’s hopeless.”
“Do you always give up so easily, Weasel?” Nott asked and shook his head, catching the wand which was falling down.
Ron glared at him and got up. “No, but you gave up even quicker!”
“Whatever, Freckleface. You needed to prove you’re still the man, so I let you.” Nott turned his wand in his hand as if he was inspecting it from every angle and whatever he had said was just a secondary idea.
Before this could get any more out of hand, Harry interrupted these two angry idiots. “Look, the door is locked; maybe we can find something on the outside. I know a lot of Aurors might have already tried this, but we’re new ones, with new eyes on the subject. Maybe we’ll find something they haven’t seen.”
Ron got up and basically stormed around the house. Nott sighed and got down the two front steps as well, grabbing a piece of parchment and writing down everything he could see. Harry sighed and shook his head. He leaned at the pillar and looked up.
Malfoy stepped next to him and took out his own wand as well. “You’re really good at de-escalating whatever these two are doing right now.” He kneeled in front of the door as well, pointing his wand at the lock.
“Yeah, well. Ron always thinks people believe he’s stupid. And for some reason Nott seems to know exactly which buttons to push that turns him wild.” It reminded him slightly of Ron and Hermione during their years of friendship and secret love. And well, at the end there, where both of them were just drifting apart, they knew exactly what to do to make the other angry. That wasn’t healthy anymore.
Sometimes, splitting up was the best thing to do. At least now they could slowly grow closer as friends again, because Harry knew that they never really lost touch, it was just too much with all the Paparazzi and attention in them.
Malfoy nodded as if he had been in his own thoughts as well. “Theodore’s got this talent. He could drive me to madness as well.” His wand made an unhealthy noise and Malfoy stopped whatever magic he had tried to use and looked up at Harry. “I’m actually surprised he hasn’t driven you wild.”
“What, with words?” Harry chuckled. “That only ever seemed to work for you, Malfoy. And I did visit a mind healer for the last year of Auror training, so I hope I won’t kill you during this mission if you start attacking me with words again.”
“I can’t promise anything” Malfoy smirked and turned back to the door.
Harry laughed. “Well, then I also can’t promise anything.” He turned around and looked at the beach, where the waves were softly breaking. The sound of water had always had a rather calming effect on him. As he turned around he felt Malfoy’s eyes on him and he smirked. “I’ll go check up on these two idiots, in hopes that they haven’t killed each other.”
Malfoy sighed. “You do that, I’ll continue to try and get inside.”
Walking around the other side of the building, Harry found Nott inspecting a hole in the wall. It seemed to be magical, as he couldn’t get through it and you couldn’t look through.
“This place creeps me out” Nott said as he realized Harry standing next to him. He once again tried to push his arm through the black hole and it stopped him from doing that.
Harry frowned. “Have you maybe tried it with an object first, Nott? It’s better to lose a piece of paper than your whole arm, because you tried to shove it into a dark, mysterious hole.”
Nott rolled his eyes. “I have tried it with a stone, yes. And the stone went through.”
“What?”
That seemed very weird. Maybe it was because the stone wasn’t a living object and Nott’s arm belonged to a person? But why could a stone get through a magical force field and an arm couldn’t? Harry took out his own wand.
“Orbis Luminis” he whispered and an orb of pure light started glowing and floated towards the black, mysterious hole. Nott groaned frustrated, as if he hadn’t even thought of that. It passed the invisible wall and the house seemed to shiver as it did. The orb of light illuminated the inside of the giant gaping hole at the side of the house. Inside the hole was a small room that seemed to be in chaos. Parchments were lying on the floor, tables were unturned, the old arm chairs were having tears and the stuffing of pillows lay everywhere.
“Looks like someone had a fight in here” Nott commented and frowned.
“Yeah, but how long ago was this fight? And why hasn’t anyone been in here to fix it?” Harry asked aloud. The orb just floated in the middle of the room, while Harry kept looking around.
It seemed to be an office. Maps of the old were hanging at the walls, old books were inside the shelves, even though most of them lay destroyed on the floor. Even an old Muggle record player and some records were standing in neat piles in the corner.
Harry knew for a fact that this place had once been a home for wizards – maybe they were hunted and killed because they had some Muggle artifacts. Though who knew if by that time these things even were artifacts.
The orb lost its light and died down, when Ron walked around the corner. “Did you find something and not tell me?” he asked with wide eyes.
“You need to be faster, Weasel!” Nott said and sighed frustrated, though Harry had his suspicions that he wasn’t actually frustrated. “We found so much, I had to grab another piece of parchment!”
“Then why didn’t you call us?!” Ron once again glared at the Slytherin.
“Potter was here! And if you were here, I would have probably needed to give you another black eye.”
Harry shook his head wordlessly. He walked around the back of the house, seeing a very old looking tree with what seemed to be remnants of a small tree house. Whoever had lived here, seemed to have enjoyed living here. He turned towards the home and found the backdoor, once again not having boards up.
Frowning, Harry stared at it, hearing the loud discussions from Ron and Nott in the distance. Something was weird with this thing. Ron had just come from here. If he had found a door that hadn’t any boards up, he would have called them immediately, right?
Slowly, Harry walked up to the door and looked through the glass. He saw the same room, though from a different angle. He could see through the hallway right to the front door, where magic seemed to come through, though it was still locked. A grand piano, with as must dust on it as the table, stood to his right and under the window, he had looked through earlier was a small pillow, placed there as if the people living there had an animal and wanted give it a little bit of comfort. On the shelves in the living room were old pictures of places around the world, books in all sizes and a rose incased in glass – as if Belle and the Beast had lived here after their adventure in the king’s castle. At the wall to his left, the two wizards on the boat were once again waving at him. They seemed to tell him to come inside.
Harry tilted his head a little and decided to not chance it in case it was a trap and he walked to the front again, where Malfoy just swore and sat down on the wooden floor.
“Are you okay?” Harry asked.
The Slytherin sighed. “I wish. Actually, yes I am, but this house is annoying me. How come it’s so well secured? I mean, I’ve once seen something so well secured, when my mother incanted her diary with DNA, when I tried to read it.”
Harry laughed. “You tried to read your mothers diary?! Malfoy, how could you?”
“Don’t look at me like that, Potter! I was nine and a very stupid child!” Malfoy held up his hands, while Harry barely kept it together.
He brushed a tear out of his face and motioned to the two wizards coming around the corner. “Nott found a huge hole in the side of the house, but it’s magically secured. He tried to put his arm through which didn’t work, but objects can get through. It seemed to be the office.”
“Nice!” Malfoy got up and walked towards the two still arguing wizards. Nott had apparently promised Ron to give him another huge black eye to match his look of being depressed, which Ron did not appreciate whatsoever. Malfoy laughed and shook his head. “Darlings, calm down. Theo, do you have the list of what’s inside?”
Harry watched it closely. He hadn't really realized how much Malfoy had changed. While he still seemed to be annoyed by him, he was much calmer and even joked with him. Harry was sure that he wasn't the only one who had received mind healing therapy during their last year. Malfoy couldn't be so calm without it. While Nott gave his friend the list and Ron once again argued over how easy it seemed to Nott and Malfoy to get along while he hadn’t gotten any information from the dark haired Slytherin, Harry shook his head. He turned to the door and watched the door closely.
Once again taking out his wand, he checked if there was anything harmful around the house and if the door was magically sealed. Nothing came up and Harry stood there frowning at the door.
Nott, Malfoy and Ron had tried to open the door for the better part of the morning. In fact, the sun was already really high; it could be early in the afternoon. What made him think he could actually open this place?
Placing his wand back into his arm holster, he slowly walked towards the front door and placed his hand on the door handle. The cold metallic material seemed to warm up at his touch and almost melt into his skin, though not because it was hot – mostly because it seemed to absorb his hand structure.
With a loud click, the door opened and all discussions died down instantly.
Harry turned around to look at his three Auror partners, all in shock. “I think I solved it” Harry commented smirking, even though he had no idea what just happened.
“What?” Ron asked utterly confused. Though he clearly saw the slightly opened door.
“I did it. We’re in!” Harry laughed.
Malfoy turned around and walked up the two steps, peeking inside. “That’s impossible. How did you manage?”
Harry shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t think I did anything different than from what you did. It just worked…” He turned to his Auror partners, raising his eyebrows. “Should we see what’s inside?”
Nott agreed and grabbed his bag. “Let’s see what’s inside.”