Chapter 10 – Aftermath

Will wiped his eyes, finally feeling cried out. It was too much, way too much for him to handle.

He knew his father had spent a decade under that debt – the guilt that Harry Potter, the symbol of goodness in Britain, was an orphan all because of him. For his son to see a vision of it wiped away, of his father's decency reaffirmed by Harry Potter himself?

The first staggering realization was... why did he get the stone? Why didn't his father? It was a cold feeling, knowing that his dad faced into his deepest desires and... fell short. William Cartwright Senior didn't see himself making peace with Harry, or coming to grips with his debt. Instead, he saw a vision of endless riches.

But the second realization thought was... why did he get the stone? Will didn't see mirages of money – he saw things being put to right between Harry and his dad. How on earth did the Philosopher's Stone appearing in his pocket have anything to do with that? How on earth could gold do that?

It couldn't.

Neither would eternal life.

There was only one possible way Will getting the stone made any sense: by freely giving it away.

If the mirror was right, if it was speaking some sort of deeper truth (and not just what Will was hoping to hear) then… the "scar" on Harry's forehead had less to do with debt and more to do with guilt. If William Cartwright Sr. could take a stone that would make all of his fantasies true… and willingly hand it over to Harry? Would that help alleviate his guilt? His burden?

But the third and final realization crushed him.

His father couldn't. He had his chance when he'd stared into the mirror, but all he could see behind the pane of glass was endless luxury. It was a cold feeling, having to face the utter certainty that your father's morals fail.

Will swallowed, quickly trying to bottle his thoughts and feelings. He watched as his father approached the unconscious body of Harry Potter, wand drawn. Will protectively asked, "What are you doing?"

William looked back. "Memory Charm."

Will frowned. "What memory are you giving him?"

"Him coming down, seeing Quirrell trying to get the stone from the mirror. It's revealed that Voldemort was playing host to his body behind the turban. Harry duels Quirrell, but somehow the man's skin wastes away at Harry's touch."

"Wastes away?"

"Well, I have to take a little bit of liberty. Harry wouldn't be able to best Quirrell in a real duel. So… I'm giving Harry an extra weapon – his touch sort of melts Quirrell's skin. Maybe because of the fact Voldemort's possessing him, makes him unable to bear human contact?"

"Seems… unlikely."

"Any better ideas?"

Will frowned; His dad had a point. There really weren't too many logically consistent ways the first year would defeat a fully trained wizard that possessed the combat skills to teach Defense. He swallowed, trying to keep his voice level. "What about the stone?"

"Harry stopped him before Voldemort could obtain it."

"No. Have Harry be successful, have him manage to get the stone from it."

"What? That won't work – Harry doesn't have the stone."

"That's not a problem. Please, just trust me – I know something about how this mirror works…"

"Fine, but… how would Harry even get it?"

Will hesitated. He didn't want to explain to his dad; he felt ashamed even thinking about it. He quietly said, "What happens if someone looks into the mirror – and what they really want more than anything else is to prevent something bad from happening? Or... to make a bad situation go away?"

"Good point," the elder Cartwright said. "Harry would want to find the stone so Voldemort couldn't get it. Excellent idea."

Will opened his mouth, then quickly shut it; his dad completely misunderstood what he was trying to say. And Will couldn't find it in him to correct his father. Will watched as his dad began the charm. Memory Charms weren't something you could do quickly – you had to spend the time imagining everything the other person would see and experience, and no matter how creative you were, you couldn't picture whole minutes of life in the span of a half-second.

When William finished, he nodded to his son. "Come on, we don't have time to grab the stone from the mirror – Dumbledore's probably already on his way to check on his protegee."

Will nodded, saying, "Just… give me a minute with Harry, okay?"

His father nodded, working on transporting himself and Quirrell out of the chamber.

Will couldn't look away from the scar on Harry's forehead. They'd been so close.

Harry in the mirror said my father used to be the sort of person… he 'was', not 'is'. I hope he's wrong.

Will slipped the Philosopher's Stone into the young boy's pocket. "I'm sorry, Potter," he said softly.

William looked around the sterile room of the theoretically-unoccupied muggle office park. He was not going to miss this place. It wasn't that the place was expensive – unused muggle buildings were almost designed for truant wizards. It wasn't that the place was uncomfortable – he furnished the place himself. He just that he would always associate this place with that unholy collection of forms that he filled out just to get the place registered as a valid ministry-licensed business. Who knew that creating a staffing agency would be such a nightmare?

A man shuffled nervously through the front door.

"Ah, Professor Quirrell," William said in a professional voice, his tenor not betraying that the pair had dueled each other two days prior (there was a reason he was pretending to be the 'Aqueous Avenger', after all.)

"I'd j-just l-like to pro-protest m-my eval-luation."

"Professor," William said with a theatrical sigh. "It's very difficult to look past all of these comments made by your compatriots. The allegations of theft alone make us hesitant to recommend you for any additional opportunities; a representative from the ministry informed me that you are unwelcome at Hogwarts or any other English ministry-funded buildings."

"Wh-what do w-we do, th-then?"

"My recommendation?" William said, leaning forward. "Nigeria. They've got a blossoming magic community, but they also have a different… mindset there. Theft and fraud are… less prohibitive. It's especially prevalent in the non-magical half of the country."

"W-will you re-recomme-end me?"

"A recommendation would be worthless in such a place. However, I do have contact information with their ministry. You may even use my floo to travel there, if you wish?"

A few minutes after Professor Quirrell departed for his next adventure – probably one where people just as larcenous as him showed him what it was like to be the victim of theft – William heard a voice coming from the floo.

William replied, "Wilhelm Staffing Agency, how may I help you?"

Dumbledore's face slowly emerged from the fire. "Hello, this is headmaster Albus Dumbledore from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Ah, yes. You contracted for us to provide… was it a Defense Instructor?" William fiddled with some parchment. "Professor Quirrell, Defense; I have the paperwork right here. How is he doing? I haven't heard from him since term ended – he has a staffing evaluation he needs to fill out before the end of the month."

"Yes, about that," Dumbledore said quietly. "I have unfortunate news… Quirrell has been the victim of a rather unfortunate incident here at Hogwarts…"

Myrtle could tell something was bothering Will. She'd love to claim it was an intuitive insight… but it wasn't terribly difficult to figure out, since her boyfriend had spent three hours brooding in the Chamber of Secrets.

She finally decided to interrupt his musings. "What happened?"

"A lot," he answered. "I just… I was hoping so hard that my father would be able to finally be free of his debt." He sighed, before quietly telling her about the mirror and what he'd seen within its frame.

"That's always the problem with that mirror," Myrtle replied softly. "It might have been telling you the truth… or it might have been telling you whatever lie sounded the most comforting."

Will couldn't help but think that the lie wasn't really all that comforting. He quietly asked, "What do you think?"

Myrtle paused. "I think your father doesn't owe Harry Potter anything – not a single thing. I think William has a lot of guilt – a lot of things he wished had gone differently, a lot of things he wishes he hadn't been involved with."

"So I should tell him it's not his fault that Harry's parents were killed?"

"That won't work. It is his fault."

Will's eyes flashed angrily. "How can you say that?!"

"Will… your father knows that, whatever else happened, whatever good he did by posing as Voldemort, one of the things that happened because of it was that Harry Potter is growing up an orphan, that Harry Potter's parents were slain because of what your father did. There's no easy fix for something like that."

Part of Will could see the wisdom in what she was saying. But part of him still clung to what the mirror had shown him, offering a clean and rosy picture of the future. Maybe there's a different way to make it happen?

Myrtle silently lingered, giving the 17 year old some time to think.

"I just… I keep thinking about my father, and how… how weak he was down in that corridor. Not magically, I mean. I know that my father wanted the stone for himself, and that when he looked into the Mirror of Erised, something went wrong, something failed. He wasn't…"

"… wasn't good enough?" Myrtle prodded.

Will nodded sadly.

"That's not really fair. Only one person in a hundred could live up to that sort of test."

"But… he used to. He used to be that sort of person. When Harry in the Mirror was talking to me, he said that I was that sort of person, and that my father used to be."

Myrtle read between the lines a bit. "And you're worried you'll do the same thing, that it'll happen to you, too."

Will didn't answer.

Decided that Will just needed time to think about all of that, she changed the subject. "So what's the plan now? I mean, with Voldemort?"

"I don't know." Will's voice was disinterested. "I just don't know – maybe we'll just give up on the whole thing. My father wasn't keen on the whole idea to begin with. Maybe he's right – maybe Voldemort should just stay dead."

William was having just as depressing of a day as his son. For three reasons.

First, his latest set of appeals with the ministry (done anonymously and from multiple angles) still hadn't gotten any results. Of all the things that weighed on him, Harry Potter's orphan status was number one… but close behind was the fact that Harry's godfather was still in Azkaban. Unfortunately, the Cartwrights were the only people alive that knew for certain that Black was innocent… and William had found out that there were several former death eaters that were using their political clout to keep Black there. Why not? From their perspective, they were basically killing one of the staunchest opponents of the dark lord – a sort of minor consolation prize after Harry defeated Voldemort.

Second, he'd received the annual Hogwarts Graduation Notice, where each departing student announced their intentions for the future. Most people were just curious where their friends' kids were going to be working. William, instead, looked at it from quite a different point of view: tracking the "pureblood" schism. Forget asking people what they thought – just look to what they decided to do after graduation. During most years, all four houses were nearly equally represented in the fields they took after graduation. A Slytherin auror? Just as common as a Gryffindor one. But… during those dark periods, when evil was unfurling, the Slytherin graduating classes were markedly different. And he was seeing the same schism start to appear – and this current year's graduation was almost as bad as the ones during Voldemort's reign. No Slytherin aurors, nearly double as many hit-wizards. No Slytherin applications to muggle-friendly fields; a 50% jump in the number of Obliviators (where muggle cursing was unfortunately prevalent.) Only two Slytherins going into a public-safety field; but nearly a dozen going into a power-based ministry position.

Third… he finally couldn't ignore anymore the financial statements and ministry positions of several dynasties of death-eaters. The Malfoys and Parkinsons were the most obvious, but they were far from alone. It wasn't noticeable to someone who didn't know exactly who was a former death-eater, but it was pretty clear that the darker members of society had been building power, influence, and control.

William closed his eyes. It was nearly as bad now as it was when he'd graduated. A wave of twilight was once again building and heading for shore. Only this time around, the forces of evil didn't have someone working to thwart them from within.

Maybe Will was right after all? Maybe Voldemort does need a Part Two…

Author's Note: It's a bit strange place to leave off a story. I do have a plan for a third installment (tentatively titled: Fletcher's Gang) but it's not the story I'm going to be working on right now.

The good news is, that's because I'm working on a different story. And like the 'Dangerous and Deadly' series, it's something you've never read on before. Give it a try - look up Harry Potter and the Fractured Apocalypse on my author profile.