HERE WE GO AGAIN (Patreon)

Chapter 25- Two Faced

“You will be travelling to Bulgaria, lass,” Moody grumbled as he dropped a set of papers on her desk. “Pack your bags, Blackwood. You better be ready for some harsh weather.”

Daphne smiled. She had enough of the desk work for the past two months. She had been waiting for this since her time in the Aurors. She was excited to start working with the man, but more than that, she wanted to see how the man worked. Moody was the best to step out of the British Auror Corps and she had ended up getting lucky to have been assigned to him.

“How are Charlus and Dorea doing?” Moody questioned as he sat across from her desk.

“Doing very well. Dorea invited you for tea this weekend. Says that you should not be giving any excuse this time or the next time she meets you, she would drag you by the ear.” The man grinned as he shook his head.

“I don’t doubt that for a second.” He muttered. “Tell her that I will be there unless something comes up.”

Daphne smirked. Dorea was a force to be reckoned with. Her husband and brother were two of the most decorated wizards alive and they steered clear of the woman when she was in a bad mood.

She pushed the papers towards one side and picked up a file of complaints lodged for the past week. Daphne made sure to engage in a cursory glance about the issues from every week to check on anything pressing that might be important to them, but there had been nothing more than the average issues of every day to date. The Dark Lord was silent for the time being and it had been the same since the day, their manor was attacked.

This was not the first time she had been read up on this complaint. Some of the complaints the auror department received were nothing worth more than a laugh, but when the same became repetitive, it could not be written off as a joke.

“Alastor?” She turned to face the man. “Read this.” She pushed the complaint towards the man waiting for his response.

“Ha…!” Alastor laughed as he shook his head in disbelief. “A man with two faces? They are getting creative.”

“I would not be so sure to dismiss the issue so quickly, Alastor. This is the second time I have read about the same complaint and in three days.”

“I wouldn’t put too much stock on that, lass. There are stupid minds everywhere around us.  You should expect things like this every day.”

Daphne shrugged uncertainly. “I don’t know, Alastor. I don’t feel that this is something we should be ignoring. There is something about this issue that is nagging me.”

The man frowned as he regarded Daphne’s words but finally relented. “For your peace of mind, I will look into it.”

“Thank you,” Daphne sighed thankfully as the man limped away. ‘A two-faced man?’ She hoped that Alastor was right and this was nothing more than a joke.

Daphne exited her workspace and began walking towards the public floo chambers of the ministry, still deep in thought.

The report that she had compared possessed similar descriptions regarding the man. The man wore a hood over his head and hid his face completely, but somehow, a few of them had managed to catch a glimpse of the person.

There were two halves to his face. One half was a different person and the other half was a different person. It was not supposed to be possible. It seemed far-fetched and she could understand why Alastor was dismissive. She would be too, if not for the fact that she had now read up on the same person a dozen times.

She arrived at the front lobby of the  Potter house and continued inside, lost in thought. She must have walked past somebody, because the next thing she knew, she felt a hand on her shoulder from behind.

“You seem lost.” Harry walked up next to her. “What is the matter? Tough evening?”

“No,” Daphne sighed and then proceeded to recount the events of the past hour. “I have been noticing them for some time now and for some reason, my gut tells me that it is not something worth dismissing quickly. It should not be possible, Harry. How can two separate individuals coexist as one?”

“In at least one way that I know of…” Harry trailed off, pointing towards his infamous scar courtesy of the Dark Lord.

“That is different,” Daphne denied. “In your case, it was a soul shard.”

“My point still stands.” Harry cut in. “Did you have any knowledge about the concept of a Horcrux until I revealed them to you?”

Daphne shook her head in answer. She didn’t. A Horcrux and the magic behind it was a foreign concept and form of magic to her and she would have never known about it if not for Harry, there was no likelihood that she would ever know about such magic. It was hidden and with reason. There might be a few people in the world who might be aware of them at the most.

“There are magics beyond our knowledge, Daphne. Just because we have no idea about it, does it mean that it does not exist? There was nobody who survived a killing curse before me. Yes, it might have other factors, but in principle, I did survive it. When we ask the right person, we always get answers to everything possible.”

“Did you talk to Moody about it?” Daphne nodded. “He has promised to look into it.”

“Then he will see to it. If there is something, he will let you know. Knowing Mad-Eye as I do, he will not let it go until he has his doubts cleared. Let me tell you that if this incident does catch his head, then he will go as far as to tidy it up before he lets it go.”

“Come on. It is time for dinner.” Harry led her deeper into the manor taking her mind off from her job.

BREAK—---

Moody peered over the set of parchments that he had managed to procure about this mystery man. Blackwood was right. There had been a few dozen complaints about the same, which ranged for almost a year now if he wanted to be precise.

How the department had refrained themselves from looking further into it, he did not know. It angered him that a proper investigation had not been conducted.

Despite the silliness of the claim, he had expected that they would have tried to find out if it was true considering the number of complaints they had received, but none had looked into it.

He prodded further and he came across a page that coincided with a date that he remembered very well.

“The first sighting coincides with the death of Greyback.” He muttered to himself. It did not take long for him to put two and two together.

So, Greyback was killed by this supposed two-faced person. Must be a very powerful person if he managed to off Greyback. Moody cursed.

This was the last thing he wanted. He had heard about the Dark Lord and his supporters. This must be an internal conflict or there was a powerful opposition.

Whatever might be the reason, this development did not bode well with Moody. Opposites and the in-between along with all the trouble they bring in was bad. Very bad.

He collected the files and made his way to the floo room wanting to speak to the one man who could provide better insight into this mess.

BREAK—---

Albus was surprised to find a visitor this late into the night. He was rifting through a few parchments when the floo flared to life. Not many had access to his personal floo and the few who had access, knew not to use the floo unless there was an emergency that needed his immediate attention.

“Alastor?” He was surprised to see the man at this hour, but the surprise was pushed aside as soon as the fact that there might be something bad happening if he was here close to midnight.

“Albus.” The man limped to the seat in front of the Headmaster’s table. “I had something to show you.” He placed the parchments he had brought along with him on the table.

“What is the matter, my friend? Is this something that couldn’t have waited till the morning?”

“You would not be sure of that once you read it, Albus.” Moody snorted.

The Headmaster frowned and did as asked as he picked up the parchment. As he proceeded to read the document, he understood why Alastor was quick in bringing this to his notice.

“A two-faced man? Strange.” Dumbledore muttered. “Do you have any other information, Alastor?” He questioned as he continued to read into the report.

“Nothing concrete to pinpoint us to this person.” Moody sighed. “This would have continued to be ignored if not for Blackwood who brought this to my notice.”

“Blackwood?” Dumbledore questioned, looking up from the parchments. “That is not a name I am familiar with.”

“That new girl living with the Potters. She is very good, Albus. One of the best recruits I have seen in almost a decade and a half.”

“She must have made quite an impression if you are praising her, Alastor. You do not hand over praises very easily.”

“That she did.” Alastor grinned.

“This is not something I have come across, Alastor. I have no information regarding this person, nor have I encountered magic like this.”

“Thought as much. But I had to ask Albus. Whatever it is, the person dabbing in magic like this is no ordinary man. You cannot dwell into such magic without years of experience and knowledge.”

“You are right.” Dumbledore agreed. “You cannot perform certain branches of magic without proper knowledge. The price we would pay for doing so and going wrong will be astronomical.”

Dumbledore placed the parchment on the table. “I will keep my eyes and ears open, Alastor. That is the most I can do without further details. But rest assured, I will look for what kind of magic we are dealing with. There are a few sources I can consult.”

“Thank you.” Alastor was relieved with that. He can always trust Albus to come up with some answers.

“I will take my leave, Albus. I apologize for the intrusion. I will leave you to it.”

Alastor got into the floo and departed leaving behind a pensive headmaster who stared back at the files that he was left with.

Albus would come up with something in a short time. If he wanted to know anything about this man and the magic he had meddled in, then Albus was his safest bet.

Alastor had decided that he would start paying a lot more attention to this case. It was good that he was brought to attention as quickly as possible. It was already late, according to him. This was something that should have taken precedence the moment Fenrir Greyback was involved.

The most feared werewolf in the magical society whom many magical governments wanted for his atrocities was killed and nobody bothered to look further into it. How did he end up dead? What of the killer?

He did not like to think much of it, considering the man who pulled this off, did a great service to society in general, but there were a lot of questions that revolved around his actions that could not be ignored.

He will be taking over this case officially by tomorrow and he would like to close it as soon as possible. His only hope was that this would not go out of hand before they put a stop to it.

BREAK—------

“Anything else that might help?” Arcturus questioned. He, Charlus and Harry had been seated in Charlus’s study and Harry had decided that it would be better if the two were to hear about Daphne’s mystery man.

“I am sorry, Arcturus.” Daphne apologized, shaking her head. “I have nothing else to tell you.”

“That is very little to go ahead with, my dear.” Charlus sighed. “Something like this should not be possible, but we live in a world of weird. There is always a possibility that somebody might have come across something. I will see where I can find more, but if it is not available in any of our family libraries, I don't think there is anyplace else apart from Hogwarts that can provide you with an answer.”

“I would rather not go to Dumbledore until it is the last resort.” Harry cut in. “We should keep his head out of our issues as much as possible.”

“But he is one man that can shed some light on this magic, son.” Charlus sighed. “Deny everything you want, but he is a great practitioner of magic and any unidentifiable magic will be right up his alley.”

“I am not denying anything,” Harry argued. “I know what Dumbledore is capable of doing, but I don’t like his meddlesome ways. He can go to any extent to make things happen and at the cost of a third person.”

“I don’t like that. Yes, there will always be certain losses on the path, but I don’t want that to be the case. If possible, we are in a position to do a job with minimal damages and I want it to be the same. Dumbledore will play it slow. We all know that.”

Daphne placed her hand on his shoulder reassuringly calming him down.

“We will do it your way,” Daphne assured him, as the older man nodded their agreement.

“I can think of one person who might provide us with an answer,” Arcturus replied, a frown marring his face. “It’s been years since I talked to him, but I can contact him and see if he can shed some light on this conundrum you are in.” He reassured Daphne.

“Flamel?” Charlus questioned.

“Flamel.” Arcturus nodded.

“Wait. Nicolas Flamel?” Daphne blurted out, not hiding her surprise. “The Philosophers Stone, Nicholas Flamel?”

“Is there any other Nicholas Flamel?” Arcturus questioned, his amusement visible to the rest of them. “I certainly don’t know any other six-hundred-year-old named Flamel.”

“You know Nicholas Flamel personally?” Daphne continued. “How?”

“From the previous war,” Charlus answered. “We were sent to France when the war picked up pace in that country and Nicolas Flamel was present along with his wife to administer mass treatment of the forces. His stone was rumoured to have abilities to heal very serious injuries that would have taken a lot of time to cure or not cure at all.”

“Every force of ours had dwindled in numbers considerably by the time the war reached the French country and we had no choice but to ask him for his help or risk losing what little men we had. He was gracious enough to comply and help us despite being a major target to Grindelwald.”

“We developed a good relationship at the war front and though we have not been in contact for a while now, I am sure that he would not hesitate to help us.” Charlus finished.

“Don’t worry about it now.” He continued. “Let’s get to dinner. We will have answers very soon.”

TBC—---