Harry's arms were crossed, tucking his wrist against the glistening Auror badge on his chest as he stared at the living room. Two bodies lay in it. One had been badly burned, but the harsh angle of the neck said that wasn't what killed her. The other was sprawled out comfortably on the couch, his eyes closed like he was sleeping.
Both of them made Harry feel sick, for completely different reasons.
He heard footsteps behind him. Lisa Turpin and Terry Boot joined him, standing on either side.
"Report," Harry said softly.
"We ID'd the victim," Terry said. "She's a pureblood from Germany. Family name, Erbel. They were married a year ago. She was his third wife."
"What happened to the others?"
"Disappeared." Terry's voice was quiet and dark. "Never his fault, though. Not according to the investigations. The second one died during the war, the first one died before it. I guess it got lost in the chaos. Or the right people found the right amount of money to see nothing wrong."
"He served a twelve month Azkaban sentence after the Battle of Hogwarts," Lisa said. "He was marked. But there was no evidence of any crimes he committed, and he didn't fight in the battle, so he got the minimum sentence. He might have slipped through the cracks if his father wasn't so famous."
"Guess they'll meet again now," Terry said, looking at the corpse on the couch. "I hope wherever it is, sucks."
"Speak professionally!" Lisa hissed. "We're on the job!"
"Whose hearing us? Him?" Terry pointed to the couch.
Harry ignored the two and stepped forward. He crouched in the middle of the room, looking at the body of Virgil Yaxley's last wife. His last victim. Almost against his will, Harry's eyes darted over the wounds and pieced together exactly what had happened. A Bludgeoning Charm hit her at the wrong angle. Instead of concussed and obedient, Virgil found his wife dead. Another one. But things had changed. He could no longer duck charges by paying a Ministry that was willing to be blind. He knew it, and chose to take his life with a painless poison that put him into an unending sleep.
Harry's knuckles drew taut. He looked at the body on the couch and felt a deep hatred— the same feeling he got whenever a criminal escaped him and went on the run. But this was one he could never catch.
He stood up and controlled his expression, turning back to his squadmates.
"We'll clean her body up and contact her family, if she has any. Yaxley has none. The Ministry will arrange some unmarked grave for him. Lisa, hit his office and see where he got the potion he drank. We'll see if we can track the seller. Spreading a poison as strong as this should be good for a few months in Azkaban. Terry, I want a letter to whoever his closest distant relative is."
"They're probably in Azkaban," Terry said.
"I'm counting on it. Dress the letter up as basic Auror procedure, which it is. But I want you to emphasize that the Yaxley line is dead. Enough to rub any good pureblood the wrong way."
Terry grinned the way he did whenever he prowled toward Ron's desk after a Chuddly Cannons game. "Will do!"
His smile fell a second later, his eyes drifting away from Harry and to the bodies. It was replaced by a frown. Harry could see the tendons popping out of his wrist, his forearm flexing. Lisa hid it better, but he could see the same thing in them that he felt.
A monster just got away.
O-O-O
Harry stared at the three story house in front of him. It was gorgeous, surrounded by a forest of widely-spaced pines while a few low mountains rose in the distant background. The lawn was very well tended. The manor was at least three times the size of the home he'd stood in front of the last time he visited this man. Harry grinded his molars together for a moment, then set off up the front path.
His stride was shorter than he was used to. His body was stockier as well. Burly shoulders shifted as his arms swung. Approaching the front door, Harry got a glimpse of his face in one of the windows. It was identical to what he saw in the mirror before he set out. The brown hair and chipped-front-tooth of Aquinas Greengrass, heir to his family and businessassociate of one Virgil Yaxely.
Harry began his infiltration by knocking on the door.
It opened quickly. A house elf had answered. Harry resisted his instinct to smile at the floppy eared, earnest little being.
"Tell your master that Aquinas Greengrass is here to see him. An important matter has arisen on the subject of his betrothal."
"I wills be doing that sir! Right aways, sir!"
The elf quickly brought him to a waiting room before darting away to bring news of his visit. Harry looked around the room. It was clean; the elves did good work. But the whole home smelled of alcohol in a way even magic would struggle to get out. It was soaked into the walls, the carpet, and every surface of the rooms. Harry spotted three potions scattered around the room that were all half-drunken. He leaned over to the closest one, sniffing the silver substance. It smelled like fertilizer. Moon Silk, a hallucinogenic potion manufactured primarily in South America. Possession of a bottle this size carried a fine of more than two hundred galleons. Of course, you could get off with paying half of that, if you knew who to pay and when to do it. When he was done here, Harry resolved to put his back into helping Amelia win her election.
Heavy footsteps sounded outside the room. He heard some kind of grumbling. The door was thrown open, admitting a man large in gut and in height.
Virgil Yaxley had dirty blond hair that was short and more than a touch messy. Despite his robes being expensive, Harry could spot stains along the lining. His pupils were slightly dilated, just enough to bring his sobriety into doubt. Something about the way he styled his appearance, the robes that he wore and how he had his hair cut, reminded Harry of a younger man than Virgil actually was.
"Yes? I hope that this is important, Aquinas." Virgil tromped to a chair and dropped into it, groaning as he landed. "I had an absolutely lovely party last night. You should have come. It got quite wild, and I'm still feeling the effects." Virgil smiled. "Of course, the party tonight will be even greater. If you're willing to stay…"
"You're quite the party animal."
"Yes, well, I've been lonely." Virgil put the back of his hand against his forehead, leaning into his chair dramatically. "Ever since I lost my wife… It's been difficult. So difficult." He cracked an eye open, peering around his hand. "I'm so eager to enjoy companionship again. I can't thank you enough for your generous offer. Really, you should stay for the party tonight. It will be very worth your while. I got a new shipment of potions recently…"
"I know," Harry said. "I brought them with me."
His hand went to a Mokeskin pouch fastened around his waist. While Virgil watched with a confused smile, Harry pulled out potion after potion.
"I don't recognize those. I definitely didn't order them," Virgil said. "My taste in potions is very particular."
"You broadened your interests to be of use in the war effort." Harry continued taking out potions. He flicked his wand and they began to scatter around the room, the bottles tucking themselves into inconspicuous locations. "You already had connections to plenty of unscrupulous sellers. Instead of potions to warp your senses and leave you pleasurably addled, you broadened to things that could aid the war effort. Felix Felicis. Skele-Grow. Polyjuice."
Virgil shot out of his chair. "Treachery!"
It was hard to tell if he understood he was sitting with an imposter or if he believed Aquinas Greengrass had double crossed him. Either way, he pulled his wand. It was a long and skinny thing made up of beige wood. Harry whipped his hand out. Virgil's hand jerked up, sending a yellow curse into the ceiling. Harry moved fast, barely slowed down by the unfamiliar lengths of his limbs.
Harry reached across his body, planting his hand on the back of Virgil's bicep. His other hand pressed up into Virgil's forearm. The fat man found himself spinning as Harry twisted his arm. He tried not to drop his wand. When his back was to Harry, he could turn no further. Harry kept pushing his arm, bending it, bending it, bending—
Virgil dropped his wand to save his arm. Harry kept pushing. There was a crack, followed by a scream. Virgil sounded shrill. Harry let him fall to the ground and picked up the man's wand. He leveled it at the back of Virgil's head, not yet firing.
The door burst open. It was the elf who let Harry into the house. She looked terrified and raised her arms and levitated things around the room, ready to throw them at Harry. He paralyzed her using Virgil's wand, making sure she wouldn't be in pain.
Her owner took the chance to crawl out of the open door. He was moving frantically, which did not mean quickly. His gut dragged on the floor as he clawed at the carpet, pulling himself with his good arm and inching along on his knees. He was sobbing threats and pleas. As Harry walked behind him at a sedate pace, he noted that the man didn't know how to handle pain. It was just a broken arm. Not fun, but not enough to turn you into such a gibbering mess.
Only when Virgil had crawled through the front door, which happened to be sitting open for him, did he realize that he might not be making the grand escape he'd thought he was.
The moment he stopped, Harry put a boot on his butt and kicked him down the front steps. His impact off each stair was loud, and his last landing seemed like it might've broken his arm in a new place.
"W-Why?" Virgil asked. "You offered her to me! You did it! So why… Why are you…"
Harry smiled, not answering the question. He rolled Yaxley over on the grass, mounting his foot atop the man's chest.
"How many times have you been married?" Harry asked.
"Only once! She passed away suddenly, nothing I could do about it! I'll treat your daughter better, I swear it. I swear it I swear it I swear it—"
Harry felt something shift in his stomach at the mistaken impression that Aquinas Greengrass would do such a thing to protect his daughter. There was an even darker feeling inside Harry, too. When he investigated Virgil, the man had been on his third wife. His second died during the war. Harry racked his brain, trying to remember the vaguest hint of what Daphne's life entailed when he grew up with her, coming up with nothing.
He didn't know for sure. All he had was a gap in his memories that he'd never known to fill. That gap carried a possibility with it, the thought of which made Harry feel a very cold rage. He could say from experience— that was the dangerous kind.
"Justice caught up," Harry said.
It was gibberish to Virgil because he was talking to himself. Harry aimed a Bludgeoning Curse more carefully than he ever had in his life. There was a corpse in his mind. He hit Virgil exactly where he meant to. The crack that followed was telling.
Virgil did not offer any more pleas.
Harry stepped back and began to wait. He had about thirty minutes left with Aquinas' face, if he had done his calculations correctly. That was bound to be enough.
As it turned out, he stumbled into a stroke of luck. The first guests for the party Virgil had bragged about arrived at almost exactly the same time as the Aurors, who had received a very generous anonymous tip earlier.
For those arriving on the scene, once the moment of disorientation from travel had passed, they saw Aquinas Greengrass gape and flinch just as he was setting fire to the body of Virgil Yaxley.
"Drop your—" barked one of the Aurors.
It was too late. The murderer had disappeared with the help of a Portkey.
O-O-O
"This is preposterous. I've been in my home this entire evening."
Aquinas was going to great pains to keep his voice level, controlled, and low as he spoke to the Aurors, which did little to hide the anger bubbling just underneath.
"You'll get a trial," Savage said. "At the moment, you're just a suspect. The lead suspect. We have multiple reports of you at the scene, burning the victim's body."
"I haven't gone out all afternoon!"
"Can anyone confirm that?" Savage's voice was almost bored.
"I've been with my daughters for the last thirty minutes. My wife has been with me all afternoon. Merlin, don't just stand there, woman. Tell them!"
Anastasia had arrived at the front door, fetched by Daphne as soon as the arrest began. While her daughters stayed upstairs, she watched as her husband was cuffed by the Aurors. "He…"
Her hesitation was noted by Savage. The Auror gave her a different look than the one he'd offered her husband.
"It's a serious crime to lie in this kind of investigation. A man lost his life. The truth is all that we ask, and it's in your best interests to provide."
Anastasia's mouth stayed open, hanging like her jaw had a loose hinge. She quickly averted her eyes.
For a moment, Aquinas was dumbstruck. The dam broke moments later.
"What are you doing, woman? We sat in the same room! The same damn room! You were sewing and I— I— Just fucking tell them! You know I was!"
"Okay. That's enough of that." Savage planted a bearlike hand on Aquinas' shoulder, pulling him out the door. The two other Aurors in his squad followed. "You'll be spending the night in the Ministry. If you're telling the truth, you'll be back home by tomorrow. If not?" Savage chuckled. "Well, you could be somewhere much worse."
Aquinas tried to glare at his wife as he was led away. It didn't work, as Savage walked in exactly the right place to block line of sight between them. They reached the wardline and left via a pop of magical travel. Anastasia remained where she was standing. A shockingly short time later, she felt someone step up beside her.
A look revealed Harry, looking quite pleased with himself. The strangest part was that he arrived from deeper inside her house. Anastasia didn't think too long about that.
"Testimonies are a fickle thing," Harry said. "Veritaserum isn't permissible in court. With Memory Charms or good Occlumency, it can be fooled. It seems you've found yourself as the only witness to his alibi. That's a lot of responsibility."
He looked meaningfully at her. Anastasia's hands shifted, flexing her fingers. Harry noticed but didn't speak on the gesture.
"What did you do?" Anastasia asked.
"I dealt with two problems at the same time. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. All that's left now are a few finishing touches…"
He turned away from Anastasia, taking a potion out of his pocket and tucking it behind a shelf. Anastasia's confusion grew, rather than abating. Harry chuckled when he turned back and saw her face. He winked instead of offering an explanation.
"You are dangerous," Anastasia decided. "What about your confrontation on the platform yesterday? Don't you think you'll be a suspect in the investigation."
"Well, I most likely would have been, given the spat your husband and I got into. Except I've been in a staff meeting all afternoon. Or at a cooking exhibit in a museum. Or something like that." He laughed at the look on Anastasia's face. "What matters is that I couldn't have been here, stowing potions around the house and slipping a certain wand into your husband's personal vault. Whatever happened, I had no part in it. Neither did you, except as a witness."
Anastasia squinted. Gradually, the tension around her eyes lessened. She let out a deep breath, sighing.
"Thank you," she said.
"You're very welcome," Harry said graciously. "If you're in a mood to make it up to me, there is something you could do."
Anastasia stiffened. He caught her unease and carried on quickly.
"It's nothing bad. At worst, you'll find it a tad uncomfortable, but I think it will be fun." He turned and bent forward, taking one of Anastasia's hands as gently as he could. Harry kissed her knuckle, looking up into her eyes, and said—
"Anastasia Greengrass, how would you like to attend a ball?"