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Seven Days Before
Harry saw the article on a newsstand in Diagon Alley while she was buying potion ingredients. The Wizengamot was going to rule on an emergency bill next week. If it passed, the bill would allow Aurors to use veritaserum in the questioning of anyone who had personally known the Rigel Black Child.
Harry set down the newspaper, walked with careful poise to an empty alley off of Knockturn, and then retched.
Six Days Before
Archie sat across from Harry on his bed, several coins and dollar bills laid out between them. He watched his cousin pick up a quarter and carefully turn it over.
“Why the sudden interest in American muggle money?” he asked hesitantly.
Harry didn’t look at him as she said, “Don’t worry about me, Archie.”
Four Days Before
Leo Hurst opened the door of his apartment to find Harry standing there in the pouring rain, her hair dripping as she shakily said, “I need to disappear.”
Leo let her in, casting a warming charm on a towel before wrapping it around her and sitting her on his small couch.
“Do you have somewhere in mind?”
Harry shrugged and took off her glasses, wiping the lenses dry and then putting them back on. “Not really.”
“The Alleys,” Leo offered, leaning forward. “You can disappear in the Alleys. If you really tried to hide there, no one would ever find you. And the Alleys protect their own.”
But Harry’s eyes widened as she frantically shook her head. “Leo, the Veritaserum Bill—once the Ministry knows my identity, it applies to everyone who knew me as Rigel and as Harry. That means you. As it is, I’m going to have to Obliviate you before I leave; I can’t just live in the Alleys where you might see me any day!”
Leo placed his hands on her shoulders. “Then Lionel Hurst will disappear too. I’ll just be the Rogue.”
Harry scowled and shivered lightly. “Your mum knows me from Maywell—what happens when she’s under Veritaserum, and is forced to say that Lionel Hurst is the Rogue? We’d both be doomed. What, is your entire family going to just disappear?”
Leo went silent, pursing his lips as he thought. “So what if I’m not the Rogue?” His voice was too calm for such words, his eyes serene as he looked at Harry.
Harry flinched. “You can’t!” she cried, her heart thudding heavily at the thought of Leo leaving the Alleys.
“Listen to me, Lass,” Leo said gently, tilting his head and placing a hand on her shoulder. “When the people of the Alleys pay their tithes, it’s a magical oath to care for their Rogue with the same dedication as the Rogue cares for them. They can’t break it.”
Silence hung heavily as Harry pressed a hand to her temple and tried to decipher his words. Her voice cracked as she whispered, “Then why would you give that up? They—everyone adores you as their king, Leo; that kind of protection… you can’t give that up for me.”
“I wouldn’t give up the Rogue,” Leo said. “I would lose it. The best way to tell a lie is to make it the truth.”
Three Days Before
“I’m keeping your eyesight.”
“No problem. We’d have pretty cute kids, huh?”
Harry rolled her eyes. “Shut up.”
Two Days Before
Everyone standing in Kyprioth Court that afternoon saw a hooded figure emerge from the shadows.
She lowered her hood, revealing a woman with long hair the color of honeyed wheat and hazel eyes that glimmered emerald when the sunlight hit them.
The stranger raised her wand towards Leo and said, “I challenge you.”
An hour later, Eleni Hurst heard a commotion from the lobby of Maywell, and she ran out when she recognized her boy’s voice—his cries.
Leo practically fell into her arms when he saw her, shaking as he held her and brokenly whispered, “Ma, I lost the Rogue.”
Her heart chilled at the despair in his voice, and she sat him down, wrapping her arms around him. She swallowed, trying to think of the best thing to say.
“You’ve had a good five years,” she said against his hair. “That’s a long time for a Rogue, and you can still do good in the Alleys, Leo.”
But he tensed at her words, his shoulders shaking in a silent sob. “No, Ma,” he said numbly. “The new Rogue, she… I’ve been banished. She’ll kill me if I stay.”
Eleni gasped. “Oh, Baby,” she murmured, hugging him tighter like she could hold his shattering life together.
After a long time, Leo looked up but didn’t meet her eyes as he said, “I need to get away. I can’t…I can’t be this close, not for now, at least.”
She nodded even as her heart ached at the thought of him leaving. “Where will you go?” she asked.
“I think I’ll try America.”
THE DAY
The bill passed.
Harry was gone.
One Day After
Arcturus Black was questioned first.
“Do you know the true identity of the Rigel Black Child?”
“Yes.”
The two Aurors questioning him looked at each other with wide, eager eyes. “Who is it?”
Archie began to quietly weep, shaking as he brokenly whispered, “Harriet Potter.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Has she left any clues?”
He told them how Harry had asked too many questions about America, until his breathless sobbing left him unable to speak anymore.
His only comfort was that the Aurors hadn’t asked if he actually believed Harry would go to America. Archie knew she was smarter than that—she’d never be so bloody obvious about the truth.
He truly didn’t know where she was, and that meant she was safe.
Three Days After
When the Aurors went to question Lionel Hurst, his apartment was empty.
So they questioned his parents about the disappearance of two people instead of one.
Malcolm bored both Aurors as he rambled on about Harry’s talent and skills.
Eleni looked them in the eye, smiling smugly at their gaping expressions when she told them her boy used to rule the alleys—and took better care of his people than Minister Fudge.
She told them that Leo lost the Rogue and left for America a couple days ago, to take some time away.
Four Days After
When Harry’s neighbors and several others in the Alleys were questioned, they all confirmed Eleni’s story.
Mrs. Botting had seen the Challenge Duel herself; she’d watched the witch take Leo down and order him out of the Alleys on pain of death. She’d watched their beloved king storm away with tears shining in his eyes.
If she’d also been there an hour later when a new young man with black hair showed up, spending half his time guiding the new Rogue and the other half following her like a lost puppy…well, the Aurors didn’t ask.
The Aurors quickly lost interest in the new Rogue once they learned she was of age and had already established her presence before Harriet Potter’s disappearance.
And since Alanna took as good care of the Alleys as Leo had, nobody felt inclined to tell the Aurors that she wore boots and brewed potions for Maywell.
Seven Days After
Harriet Potter and Lionel Hurst were sighted in South Carolina. Aurors were sent after them, but returned empty handed.
Marek and Aled apparated into The Dancing Phoenix, sitting beside the Rogue and her advisor.
“You can make polyjuice last for months,” Marek panted, spitting on the ground, “but you can’t make it taste halfway decent?”
Alanna snorted, patting his shoulder as she took a sip of her milk. “I’ll work on it for you.”
Twelve Days After
Harry and Leo—Alanna and George—stood in Kyprioth Court, watching Cora practice juggling with her knives.
Things had begun to settle once the Aurors gave up on the Alleys, focusing all their efforts towards America as they searched for two people who didn’t exist anymore.
“I told you it would work, Your Majesty.”
She rolled her eyes and jabbed him with her elbow. “Don’t call me that.”
He grinned, slinging an arm around her shoulders and ruffling her brown hair. “Consider it payback, Lass.”
She smiled.