Chapter 5
I'd never seen my client look this wrecked before.
Revelations will do that to ya, in the extreme sense it messes up your whole life.
At least my client was still functioning.
I hadn't had much experience with prophecies.
Some said it was just the mutterings of the borderline nut jobs.
But some of those prophecies, they blew the heads, occasionally literally off the seer's body.
"I wanted to know how it's been going, with everything, with me?" He said after he'd accepted the really strong tea my secretary had made for him. Some fancy Chinese imported tea she kept for special occasions.
I thought it smelt like a house fire, but then my nose is like that sometimes.
It kept my clients happy, the fancy drinks she made for them.
He told me the prophecy, after I'd made sure we weren't being observed. Even an office like mine had to be swept for bugs all the time.
He had another task for me, one I had to pass up the chain. I don't go in for the big bads, I don't even wanna think about them if I can help it.
But if you've got the cash anything can be sorted.
-/
He should have been half way through his sixth year at Hogwarts.
That's what Hermione was saying to him, chastising him for it.
Then pausing and apologising.
The law was the problem.
Still the problem.
The newest problem his lawyers had found was the extra-legal status that Hogwarts took on when it hosted the Triwizard Tournament.
It meant that it carried extra legal ramifications for people participating in the tournament, a lot of which was never mentioned to anyone involved in it.
It was all just 'implied understanding'.
Supposedly they were discovering some new things in fighting their way through it.
Currently while he was free to go about his life Hogwarts was out of the question. He couldn't set foot on the grounds without re-opening himself to the contract.
Questions still remained about the legality of it. That it hadn't been him that put his name in the cup was not one of them. Anyone could nominate anyone.
"Flawed," Hermione was saying. "Is putting it lightly."
He'd got himself a different flat, a nice one in London, so he could continue his studies, protected still by the blood drinkers' associates, just, somewhere he could make his own. He'd needed it after the prophecy and its revelations.
However, there was still significant danger out there.
That was putting it lightly.
"No Ron?" Harry asked passing Hermione a fresh cup of tea.
"The Headmaster-" She began.
Harry cut her off. "Dumbledore. I'm not sure if he'll ever be a Headmaster to me again Hermione," he said in a tone that was just...it was just that.
Hermione nodded. "It's a fascinating case, I read about some of it, the bits that are being written about in the Ministry essay journals. Your lawyers are really going for it Harry." She smiled.
Harry exhaled and leaned back into the sofa. It was an old one he'd found at auction. Its deep green yet slightly warn exterior made him think of...not Hogwarts, not exactly but that warm feeling Gryffindor had.
"Are you doing something about the prophecy Harry? Preparing...?" Hermione asked. She'd only mentioned it once before, to say that Dumbledore had told herself and Ron the gist of it though not the contents. Just in case he did something stupid.
Harry exhaled. Pausing before replying, reflecting.
It was a little under 7 months ago, when Sirius' body had been discovered.
He'd wanted to do something, to get revenge.
But in the words of the private investigator 'there's people for that'.
Voldemort might have followers, but Harry had several very high interest accounts, which enabled certain things.
He'd never have enough for an army. But this was the 20th century. You didn't need one.
"I'm doing something about it," he said after a moment's pause and reflection on what to say to her.
-/
"I feel like I'm propping up your whole agency."
The senior lawyer before him laughed. "We have many other clients Harry, few that have such ancient magic associated with them and such a prophecy too." He flipped back through the pages.
Harry had one in front of him that was a list of 'horcruxes'.
"We're serving Dumbledore with an order compelling him to reveal all information about these and anything else relating to Voldemort."
"Will that work?" Harry asked. "Fudge was dithering."
"Rufus Scrimgeour's different. At least he's more aware of the legal profession."
"War..." Harry trailed off. "That's what everyone's trying to avoid."
"That's what we all try to avoid Harry," he said.
-/
Wars.
That's what these people had survived.
That's why they came recommended.
Witches, Wizards, Squibs.
Dangerous.
Skilled.
They were expensive.
They also had morals, supposedly.
They wouldn't take any job.
Maybe scruples was a better term.
They'd met him with his lawyers and the private investigator since both those groups had been looking into his life. Different aspects. But these 'horcruxes' were complicated and they also revolved around him.
Prophecies were like that.
-/
He'd have the face Voldemort himself.
Harry had sworn.
Very creatively, so his blood drinking tutor had said with some amusement.
He would face Voldemort, though not alone, not uninformed.
And not without backing.
Rufus Scrimgeour had been not as bad as Fudge. He still wanted a pound of flesh for the cameras.
But Harry had learnt, had been instructed in how to play things, play things to his advantage.
Dumbledore and the International Confederation of Wizards were attempting to extricate themselves from the issues concerning the magical contract, still on going in investigation.
Appearing before the media with Scrimgeour had been the 'lesser of two piles of dragon dung'.
He'd hated the media, he still did, he continued to hate it.
But everyone knew about Voldemort, more so than Dumbledore's attempts after Cedric had been injured.
They also knew about the horcruxes and the information Dumbledore had kept secret, forcing his lawyers to go through the laborious process of forcing him to give it up, using the full force of the law and then some.
Harry still didn't know how he felt about this, this forcing of Dumbledore.
'It's a hard world out there, shit has to be thrown sometimes', so said the private investigator.
Harry didn't like being in the dark, and it seemed his whole life had been in the dark and carefully controlled by Dumbledore.
Right the way back.
He knew Sirius had told him about being his godfather. But he'd not really thought about what that had meant.
What if, instead of Hagrid taking him as a baby Sirius had been allowed to take his godson?
Harry tried not to let himself be lost in these thoughts of what might have been. Especially considering what had happened to Sirius.
He didn't want to think about those things sometimes.
-/
He'd been dead.
That's what they'd said.
CPR, magical revival. All that.
Everything had been in black and white when he'd been...where ever it had been.
It was almost like he had an internal monologue and it had narrated everything.
It'd all been a bit weird.
Sirius had been there, both of him. The dog and the wizard.
They'd stood and watched a shrivelled baby-like creature slowly die in what looked like a library or it might have been a train station. He wasn't sure.
Maybe it was good to not know?
-/
Harry stood at the gates of Hogwarts.
He still wasn't able to walk onto the grounds of Hogwarts. The magical contract was still working its way through wizarding society. The International Confederation of Wizards now fighting for its very survival.
"Mr Potter."
"Professor McGonagall," Harry said greeting her, she'd somehow managed to creep up behind him.
"I'm no longer your professor Mr Potter, I hear you have a private qualification above what Hogwarts caters for." She looked at him carefully.
"I suppose I do," he said with a slight nod.
"And congratulations are in order," she praised.
"Voldemort." Harry smiled. The actual death, the fight had been controlled. As much as it could be. The Death Eaters were being cleared up. The announcement wouldn't be till later.
"Indeed," she mused looking to him curiously. "Are you alright Harry?"
Harry nodded looking up at the castle. "I didn't want this to happen. I thought this would be my home, where I'd discover wonderful things, explore..." He shook his head.
"I know Mr Potter," she paused. "It takes great bravery to recognise when something is wrong and to step away from it. Even more to continue on in the face of opposition."
-/
I had a big file for my client. His history, what I hadn't told him already, and that which I had. The stuff that hadn't been used by the lawyers, and some that had.
The question of 'why me' still troubled him, I could tell. No one wants to have a prophecy pointed at them, destiny and all that bullshit.
It had been a long project, longer than most.
"If you've got any other secrets hiding, you've kept them well hidden," I said patting the large box. It'd been a year or three since I'd first met him.
He nodded.
I didn't ask him what he was going to do now.
He had his whole life to work out what to do about that.
"Thank you," he said as he picked up the box, he paused by the door. He looked like he was going to say something but decided against it.
-/
A/N:
Much like the first story Dames & Broads, Witches & Wizards this one I began with ideas of how to do it. But the voice of the private detective is incredibly hard to sustain. As can be seen from the last three chapters where I've stepped back from the private detective's voice / POV to tell the story.
I've still tried to maintain a 'cold' sort of perspective for Harry's section.
There isn't a third story in this series, what I learnt from writing these two stories is the POV/style is very hard to maintain. However some of the ideas that came about while I was writing this story might make their way into future stories. Just ways of thinking about the HP universe.
Thanks for reading.