Chapter Text
─── ༺☽◯☾༻ ───
Harry Potter was having a terrible day.
To start with, he woke up late. He’d spent the evening before trying, and failing, to fix up one of the rooms at Grimmauld place. He was in the process of redecorating the entire house whilst living elsewhere and this room had fought back on every change he’d tried to make. In the end he had to give up, not returning to his flat and falling asleep on the old musty sofa instead.
It caused him to have a mad scramble to get into work on time, worried that his auror robes may be inside out but having no time to properly check. He didn’t even have time to put anything on his toast, eating it bland straight out of the toaster. He could’ve magicked something onto it, but it never tasted quite right.
He was preparing all his excuses as he rushed into the auror offices. Family emergency couldn’t work as Ron would definitely be on time. Transport issues also couldn’t be used, they can apparate. Perhaps he stopped to help someone? But if he had, the story would somehow make its way to the papers.
He was completely lost on any ideas and was thinking that bottom of the barrel ‘a dog ate his wand’ may be the best he’s got. As he approached Robards, he prepared for the worst, but instead–
“Morning, Potter,” Robards said politely as he passed on his way to wherever he was going, with even a nod of his head in respect.
Huh?
Harry was at least an hour late, and not a single comment about it was made? He remembered when someone else on his team was late by fifteen minutes max and they got at least ten minutes of a bollocking about it, about how they’re the ones that keep ordinary wizards safe and how can they do that if they can’t even turn up to work on time.
Trying to put the issue past him so he could do his job of keeping people safe, Harry walked over to his team and greeted them good morning. He kind of hated whenever he approached a group and instantly got everyone's attention.
“Sorry I’m late.”
“No worries. We only have a few minor crimes here and there, I’m afraid there's nothing major or exciting. You could work on the case with Starling if you like,” Rose Knotts, the lead auror of their team told him.
“I’ve not finished my paperwork for the last case yet, though,” Harry informed her. He’d managed to do half of it yesterday at the end of his shift and had been meaning to finish it this morning.
Knotts waved him off. “Don’t worry about that, I’ll get someone else to do it. Can’t have the Harry Potter cooped up in the office, can we?”
Harry wanted to argue back to her that he really didn’t mind, it was his case so he should do it, but he could see a losing argument before it happened and really didn’t have the time for that with how late he was.
Forcing a smile, he joined Starling at his desk instead. “What you got?” He asked.
“So,” Starling started, spinning round on his chair with the excitement of a child. Harry wasn’t quite sure if it was the case or the fact he was working with Harry again, he was a little too excited the last time they were paired… “It’s reports of this house. Neighbours and passers by have complained about weird whisperings and an aura of dark magic. They said it’s almost like it’s haunted. Curse-breakers of course ran preliminary checks and found nothing major for them to deal with, so passed it on to us.”
Harry nodded along with what he was saying whilst also glancing at the case notes. “So, there’s not been a report of an actual crime?”
“Well!” Judging by his enthusiasm, what Starling was about to say was what had him so excited. “I checked who lived there and I can guess it has only ever belonged to one person or family as there’s no record of anyone ever buying the house. But, and here’s the interesting part, there’s also no record of any occupant either. I checked all the way back to when it was built in 1910.”
“Wait, you mean this house was built in 1910 and no one has lived in it for the almost two hundred years it’s been there?” Harry asked, now looking at the notes with even more of a scrutiny. Was it possible that Starling had simply missed the record of occupant?
“Yes! Who builds a house and then has no one buying it? No one living in it? And from the sounds of it, it’s a very nice house.” Starling pointed to the map showing the neighbourhood it was in and yes, it resided in a small but quite well off wizarding community hidden within the New Forest. Harry tried to avoid it often.
“I think we check for any other crime in the area in case it’s squatters causing issues. Then, historical records of deaths in the area, the records for who lived there could’ve been lost and maybe someone with an unregistered address who died there could be our missing occupant. No one builds a house for no one.” It was easy for Harry to casually give out instructions, something that always seemed to come naturally to him.
“Good idea!” Starling was almost beaming with happiness and made a few notes with his quill. “Perhaps this afternoon we could go visit?”
“Sounds good. Maybe some of the locals will have a better knowledge than our records do,” Harry replied, definitely noticing how Starling got happier that Harry liked his idea.
With a sigh, Harry busied himself with researching the house. It most likely was just squatters having found an empty house – there’s been a rise of that recently, especially with the ministry reclaiming a large number of the properties death eaters used during the wars, deeming them unsafe due to the dark magic residues. Homeless people have to go somewhere, so squatting was what they turned to.
He was in the middle of cross checking the details of the individuals who reported the disturbances for later when a strong hand landed on his shoulder, making him jump.
“You alright, Harry?”
Harry relaxed and smiled at Ron next to him. “Hi mate.”
“You didn’t see me this morning, is everything good?” Ron asked as he pulled a chair up to where Harry was sitting. Every morning, before their shift, Harry and Ron would get coffee together, catch up, and, do not tell Hermione, have an occasional smoke. It was an unhealthy habit, but they’d had a stressful few years.
“Slept in by accident.”
Ron laughed at him. “Typical! You should try living with Hermione, there’s never ever a possibility of a lie in.”
Harry could imagine. Hermione was never one to waste a second of the day.
“Anyway, only popped in to see if you were alright, and thankfully you’re still alive. I’ve got to go – need to scold another one of our regulars.”
“What did they do?” Harry asked out of curiosity, the look on Ron’s face told him it wasn’t serious at all.
“Turned people’s shopping bags into balloons so all their shopping started floating away. Apparently it was funny watching everyone scramble to pop the balloons, until the contents of the bags smashed once they hit the ground, and then there were demands of money for replacements.”
Harry couldn’t help but giggle a little at the thought of it, reminded of when he had accidentally turned his aunt into a balloon.
“Have fun Ron, let me know when you and Hermione are free for dinner again.” It had been a while since they had been able to have a proper sit down catch up, all so busy with their lives.
“Will do!” Ron said back as he started to leave the office. “And don’t forget you have that lunch date with Ginny today!”
Oh, yeah. He and Ginny had arranged to try out that new cafe in Diagon Alley together, today at half 12. He glanced at the clock and– “Shit.”
Harry scrambled to grab everything he needed and leave the office as soon as possible. If he was quick, he could get there just about on time. Was today the day of lateness? Maybe he should check himself for curses?
Ron let out a fond laugh as Harry rushed off down the corridor, heading straight for the Atrium and praying internally there wouldn’t be a massive queue at the fireplaces. Everyone he walked past paused in whatever they were doing to smile at him or even try to strike up a conversation, and he was doing his best to offer only a polite smile. He didn’t have time for any more pleasantries than that.
“Ah, Harry.”
Shit. If there was one person he couldn’t ignore, it would be the Minister.
“Sir?” Harry asked as he stopped walking to talk to Kingsley, hoping it wouldn’t be something long winded.
“Just wanted to check in with you about the gala this weekend, we didn’t get your RSVP.”
What gala? Harry wasn’t aware of any gala, mainly down to the fact that he had a stack of invitations to practically every single event happening, all unopened and gathering dust. He’d given up checking them when he realised they were inviting him purely on the off chance he would show up, not that he was needed at all. It was shocking how many weddings he’d been invited to without recognising the couple’s names at all.
“Sorry, sir, must've missed it.” Harry was currently operating on whatever Hermione told him was important to attend, and if she hadn’t mentioned it, then surely it wasn’t that important.
“I’ll get another one sent out,” Kingsley answered and Harry foolishly hoped that would be it. He should’ve known there’d be more. “We were actually hoping you’d give a speech.”
“A speech?” Harry echoed, raising his eyebrows slightly.
“Nothing too fancy, but it would be good to have you talk. People really care for what you have to say.”
“Uh, sure,” Harry reluctantly agreed in the hope that it would end the conversation. He could figure out a way to get out of it later, or resign himself to suffering through it.
“Great, I’ll make sure to send over some topics that you should raise along with the invite,” Kingsley said with a smile, clapping Harry on the shoulder and then finally walking away.
Harry continued his rush to the Atrium, and when he did get there, he felt like cursing aloud at the queue. Someone at the front of their queue spotted him and summoned him over, claiming that Harry Potter shouldn’t be forced to wait. Harry didn’t have an option to argue it knowing it would only cause him to be late, and took the opportunity to cut the line.
He was speed walking down Diagon Alley with one minute to spare, hopeful that he might be on time once today when someone stood right in front of him. They were both lucky that Harry managed to stop in time or they would’ve ended up in a heap on the cobble beneath them.
The man in front of him had a quick quotes quill and a list of what Harry assumed were questions. “The Great Harry Potter, I wondered if I could get your opinion on–”
“No.” Harry didn’t care what it was exactly this reporter wanted his opinion on, but it wouldn’t matter if he did. He didn’t want to give his opinion on anything, and frankly, he was getting sick of being treated better than. The novelty of the worship of him and his opinion was fun at first, helping him to get his way when he wanted, but now it had worn off and it felt too powerful. No one should have that much power.
This reporter did not want to give up, constantly stepping in front of Harry as he tried to get past and throwing questions on meaningless political topics that Harry was completely tuning out.
“Merlin, I don’t fucking care!” Harry finally snapped after the maybe twentieth time of trying to get past and from the glint in the reporter's eye, he’d just given him quite the news headline. He couldn’t wait to see the papers in a few days spouting some nonsense about how he apparently doesn’t care about children dying, or whatever they manage to twist his outburst into.
However, on the positive side, he was finally past and away from the reporter. He will take that small victory now and ignore the impending media storm coming his way soon.
He finally got to the cafe and it looked like Ginny had only been waiting for a minute – she didn’t have that look on her face that said she was in a mood just quite yet, so he was in the clear.
“Hiya,” he greeted her with a kiss on the cheek and together they went into the cafe. He really hoped the food was good, he desperately needed something to make himself feel a little better.
The cafe had gotten quite the opening buzz, meaning it was a bit of a wait in the queue. Harry and Ginny used the time to look at all the cakes on display, Ginny looking quite intrigued by the white cake that had two figures made of marzipan charmed to ice skate on the icing, whilst Harry’s eye had been caught by the jellies, one looking just like a fish bowl with actual fruit fish swimming around inside.
“Hello, who is next?” The cashier called out and Harry and Ginny moved forward. Instantly, the young cashier’s face changed when she saw who was serving. “Oh, oh wow,” She muttered under her breath with a manner that could only be described as starstruck.
Harry was annoyingly used to how people reacted with him, especially the young girls.
Ginny stepped forward, narrowing her eyes in a way that was only really noticeable to Harry and ordered for them. Harry didn’t want to accuse her of being jealous, but, well, he knew how he would feel if a man obviously flirted with her in front of him.
After too many smiles and a wink in Harry’s direction, they had ordered and paid. Ginny had decided to sit them outside to eat, away from the cashier no doubt.
Ginny had ordered him his usual coffee and a treacle tart. While he was appreciative she knew this was his favourite, it was his favourite when he was younger, when he had the taste buds that could cope with sweetness. He said nothing about it, he’d still enjoy it.
“What are you working on today?” Ginny asked as she tucked into her own cake, a slice of the ice skating one.
Harry shrugged. “Some dark magic was reported at an old house. It’s probably just squatters causing trouble.” He wasn’t worried about it at all. Dark wizards on the run from the consequences of their actions find an abandoned house and get up to shit they really should have learned better of by now – nothing was new about it.
“How’s the trials for the team?” Harry asked, changing the topic. He didn’t want to talk about work right now and he knew he could safely talk about quidditch with her without any issues.
Ginny spoke happily about the available players for picking up, who she liked and didn’t, and how they were also trialling different positions for each player. She told him of the time they tried her on the seeker position and how she’s convinced she might need glasses now because she just couldn’t see the snitch anywhere.
Harry made sure to laugh, smile or hum in the correct places, eating his tart without complaints.
It had almost been a perfect, issue-free date until Harry spotted someone in his peripheral running, and a second later they were almost on top of him.
“Harry Potter!” The girl exclaimed with glee. “I’m so glad I saw you! Thank you for everything you’ve done for everyone! I was telling my mum the other day that I don’t think there’s a man more perfect than you, and here you are!”
Her hands were gripping his so tightly he was worried about the circulation, and where she got the strength. She was so close to his face that he couldn’t even see Ginny around her.
“How do you know I’m perfect? You don’t even know me,” Harry spoke back, trying to get his hands out of hers without hurting her, but she was gripping so tight.
“But I do! Don’t you see, you’re the Saviour of the Wizarding World, you’re the greatest wizard of our time, you will always protect us.” The kind of worship she was showing reminded Harry of how death eaters like Bellatrix used to worship Voldemort in the worst possible ways.
Her hands now moved to the front of his auror robes and up and up until they were around his neck. “You’re perfect,” She repeated, her face moving closer. Harry had a fear that she was about to kiss him, and as she closed her eyes, that fear became reality.
The kiss didn’t last long, not with both Harry pushing her off and Ginny yanking her off from behind. The girl ended up on the floor, disgruntled.
Harry didn’t even have a second to blink or compose himself before the girl was up and screaming at Ginny that she was in the way of her and her “one true love” being together and happy. It was like the girl had forgotten she was a wizard with the way she went at Ginny, punching and scratching and kicking.
It was only a few seconds at most that she had attacked Ginny before Harry had done for her what Ginny did for him, pulling the girl away and placing himself between the two.
“Leave before I arrest you,” he told her sternly, gripping his wand tightly.
“But–” The girl tried to step forward, crying, but with a raise of Harry’s wand, she quickly ran away with the same speed she had run towards them.
Harry’s attention was then all on Ginny. She had gotten herself up onto the chair she was sitting on before all this happened, and was using one of the napkins to dab the blood from her nose. There was also a nasty collection of parallel cuts on her check that must’ve been from the girl's nails.
“Are you okay?”
Ginny nodded. Harry knew she wasn’t.
“I’m always going to be competing for you, aren’t I?” Ginny asked sadly.
Harry couldn’t even say anything. Ginny knew that Harry was faithful to her, yet that wasn’t the issue. It was everyone else that was the issue, and as much as Harry would like them to, he couldn’t make them go away.
He opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by the patronus of a fox turning up.
“The dark magic in the house has increased, we’re going to go there now, join us as soon as you can,” The fox spoke with Starling’s voice before disappearing.
Harry sighed, he wanted to stay here with Ginny and make sure everything between them was alright but they also both knew how he was, how much he valued his work in keeping people safe.
“It’s alright, you can go,” Ginny told him without looking at him.
“Are you sure? I’m sure they’re very capable and I want to make sure you’re alright.” He knelt in front of her and gently turned her face to look at him.
“It’s just a few cuts, Harry, I’ve survived far worse. I’m a big girl.” She forced a smile for his expense and Harry sighed again, knowing he’d lost this one.
“I’ll come by tonight and we can talk then.” He stood up and placed a kiss on her forehead, glad that that had at least made her smile genuinely. “Love you.”
“Love you too.”
And then Harry was off.
When he arrived at the house, Starling was waiting for him along with two other aurors. One was a tall woman with long sandy hair loosely plaited behind her, and the other a shorter woman with her black hair tightly tied into a bun. They both had a look of awe on their faces that he’d already seen one too many times today. Great.
“Ah, here he is!” Starling exclaimed and introduced the two others with him. “Potter, this is Trainee Aurors Sands and Goldfinch. They’re preparing for their exams and their superior thought they could learn a great deal by shadowing us today.”
“Right, sure,” Harry said, rather dismissive as his mind was still stuck on what happened with Ginny, until it struck him. “Wait, exams? I didn’t take exams.”
“Of course you didn’t. Why would Harry Potter need to take an exam?” One of the trainee aurors said, the one with sandy hair. He didn’t catch which one was Sands and which was Goldfinch.
Harry frowned at the knowledge he’d just learnt. All this time he thought he got the job as auror as people thought he was good for it, but turns out after training they just gave it to him anyway. He could be the shittest auror ever but they gave him the job because he’s Harry Potter.
Merlin, he was so tired of being Harry Potter.
The dark aura around the house spiked again, Harry could feel it, like a tickle at the back of his neck, like a sinister whisper in his ear. No wonder these neighbours were complaining so much, they had to live next to this.
“What should we do, Auror Potter?” The other trainee asked him with a look in her eyes that made Harry want to scream. He wasn’t some God or Deity that needed to be worshipped, so why did everyone treat him as such?
“I’m going to give you my wand and just walk in there without checking anything, just to see what happens,” Harry said with spite and fueled with the frustration still flowing through him. He held his wand out and the three others stared at it with wide eyes.
“If you’re sure that’s the best action, then okay.”
“Of course I’m not!” Harry couldn’t help but snap back. Were they really that stupid that they were going to let him walk into a house flooded with dark magic wandless? Just because he’s Harry Potter? “Once we’ve checked if the house is occupied or not, we shall search and see if there’s anything obvious causing the issues.”
They cast their spells and to Harry’s surprise, the house was empty. He really was expecting squatters. Maybe they fled before they arrived?
Once they’d entered the house, Harry’s squatters theory was completely abandoned. There was a caking of dust on everything in the house that no one could have stepped foot here for years. Someone had definitely lived here, though, it was surprisingly homey.
The living room was the first room Harry entered and there were lots of paintings of various people, either on the wall, placed on the mantelpiece or on the side table. Not magical paintings, just usual muggle paintings all looking like they were made by the same hand, and multiples of the same subject.
There was one photo out of all the paintings, placed in the centre of the mantelpiece. It was of two young women, one of which was the same woman from multiple paintings around the room. It seemed like the person living here must’ve known at least someone if they owned paintings and a photo of them, and that just made the lack of knowledge on who lived here even stranger.
“This just feels like an abandoned house,” one of the trainees said, and Harry had to agree. This felt like a house frozen in time, untouched since whoever last lived here left.
“I’m going to check upstairs, you three stay down here. Go through the usual scanning spells, or something,” Harry told them offhandedly, not even waiting for their response before walking upstairs. He just wanted to do his job without being worshipped. It wasn’t right that they thought it was okay to treat him like that.
The landing of the first floor was just as still as downstairs. However, as he looked at each door, something was drawing him down the corridor to the furthest one. There was nothing different about it visually from the rest, though there was a strange energy that Harry could feel getting stronger the closer he came to the room, it making his fingertips tingle.
The door handle of the room felt cold to the touch as he opened it, but welcoming. Like it wanted him to enter. Come in, come in, it would say if it could.
He found himself in a study, full of different books and artefacts scattered about. If there would be anywhere in the house for a dark artefact to be, it would be in here. He raised his wand and started doing scans on anything of significance. He was so focused that he didn’t notice the door closing behind him.
He approached the desk and opened the drawers. He didn’t find anything that special or eye-catching and ended up pulling out a journal from the bottom drawer. Flicking to the first page revealed the owner of the book – Annette Parkinson.
He was looking through the journal some more when he swore he saw something in the corner of his eye and quickly spun round, wand ready for… nothing? He could have sworn he saw something.
This house was giving him the creeps, the low level inaudible whispering was still ever present, and the almost thumping of dark magic was getting to Harry. There had to be something in here causing it. There could be some mild dark artefact that has been abandoned for so long that it’s becoming unstable, however, if that were the case, wouldn’t the curse-breakers have picked it up when they did their checks?
“Harry Potter,” something whispered in his ear and again, he spun around to see nothing. Was today the breaking point of him finally going insane?
“You are Harry Potter.”
“Yes?” Harry answered, looking around the room and still not seeing anything.
“You do not enjoy being Harry Potter.”
That forced Harry to pause. He opened his mouth to reply, but found himself at a loss for words. The voice was right, he didn’t enjoy being Harry Potter. Being Harry Potter meant, well, everything that happened today and more. It was days like today that had him wishing that Harry Potter was just another name amongst the others.
“I can make being Harry Potter go away.”
Harry’s grip on his wand tightened, still trying to look around the room for where this voice could be possibly coming from.
“I can make Harry Potter be just another person.”
Harry’s brows furrowed as he listened to what they were saying. Could it be possible? Could Harry really be an equal to everyone else?
“I can remove everything attached to Harry Potter, leaving only you in return.”
Harry considered what was being offered to him, the words worming their way into his mind, tempting him with something far too good to be true.
If Harry Potter was only himself, maybe he could have a relationship of just two people and not constantly dealing with people wanting him for what he’d done, not who he was.
If Harry Potter was only himself, maybe he would be rewarded for things he’d done well because he’d done well, and reprimanded for his fuck ups the same as everyone else.
If Harry Potter was only himself, maybe he could live his life without everyone looking.
“All you have to do is let me.”
And in a singular, stupid, lapse of judgement, Harry found himself agreeing.
─── ༺☽◯☾༻ ───