The surgeon handed the scalpel back to his assistant, who, in turn, put the blade on the tray with the other implements. The doctor diligently worked on his charge, with his staff watching every move. His surgical assistant and staff knew this was a wealthy and famous couple, although until a few months earlier very few of them ever heard of them.
More of her blood escaped and stained the sheets as he worked. Pads were placed around the opening to catch the draining fluids. She grimaced at the pressure she felt as the warm fluids spilled out from her skin.
"Here she comes," the mid-wife called to Hermione.
"She's out," the surgical assistant assured Hermione.
"Apgar, six; she needs to pink up a bit."
"Let mum see her."
"She's quite healthy; here's your daughter." The mid-wife placed the loosely wrapped child in Hermione's waiting arms; Harry leaned forward as mother and daughter met for the first time. He gave both mother and daughter a loving kiss.
"She's absolutely beautiful, just like her mum." Harry beamed, as he stayed with his new family.
"She's your legacy, Harry," Hermione replied to him.
"No, she's our legacy. She has made the past worth while." In response, the third Potter made her voice heard; the newborn voice cried for the first time. Each new sound filled her young lungs with clean fresh air, bringing her colour to a rosy hue.
"Give her here, mum; she needs a good cleaning. She won't even leave the room. And the surgeon has a bit of needle work to finish up," a midwife insisted.
Harry smiled and kissed his wife, before giving his daughter to the nurse. "Here she is, and be extra careful, she's my little girl."
"Right, papa," the nurse teased. "You can wait in the nursery and have a bit of a rest, while the surgeon finishes up. We'll bring them both along shortly."
"Go, darling, you've been up as long. Twenty hours is a long stretch, even for you," Hermione said to reassure him. "We'll be fine."
The nurse took the little girl form the new family's loving arms to a waiting table. A heating lamp glowed warmth over the child as the waiting team carefully cleaned her.
"Five minute Apgar, eight." The nurse called out.
Harry lingered in the doorway and watched the only two women in his life being tended. He saw a smile on Hermione's face as she nodded for him to rest. He finally left to find his extended family waiting for news. The room was abuzz with conversations with the exception of a young woman, with long blond hair who sat alone, unsure of the surroundings.
"Annie's doing fine; she and Hermione will be out soon."
"Annie?" Ron asked.
"Hermione's grandmother, on her mum's side. Anna Lily Potter, that's the name we will give her on her Christening," Harry said to Ron. He beamed with pride as he received numerous congratulatory back slaps from the other family and friends standing with him.
"Well now, Harry, how does it feel to be ultimately responsible for someone's care and well being?" Sirius asked.
"When you put it that way, I'd as soon face Voldemort all over, again. It's a terrifying moment, to be sure," he replied, as they all laughed nervously as he spoke that name.
"Just put it out of your mind then, Harry, we're all here behind you," Ginny chimed in.
"Just like old times? Eh?"
Fred and George finally backed away as a tawny owl pecked at the window. In its talons a tightly wrapped package waited. Draco stepped to the sill and opened the sash to take the package, but the bird refused to release its charge; it simply hooted and flew to Harry's arm.
"What's this then?" he asked, as the owl released the package to Harry.
"Open it. It must be a special birthday surprise for your daughter," Draco remarked.
He untied the string that bound the parchment and unrolled the scroll. One word in a fresh crimson stained the page and a broken pair of blood stained, half-moon glasses fell into his hand.
Harry read the one word and rewrapped the glasses into the parchment. The blank faces that surrounded him stared at him, begging for some explanation.
"Are those…"
"Professor Dumbledore's," Harry finished for Ginny.
"Does that mean he's hurt?"
"More like he's dead."
"I wouldn't cross him off just yet; the man's a brilliant wizard."
Harry raised his hand to stop the conjecture, "Please I must ask you all to treat this as a confidential matter. Ron, we have to treat this as an investigation, so secrecy must be established."
"Right, Harry, we can trust the family to keep this secret," Ron replied with agreeable nods and grunts from the other Weasleys in the room.
A tap at the window drew their attention once more; a fairly tiny and energetic owl rapped on the window pane. Ginny, now being closest, let Pig in to the room.
"He's got a message, Harry," Ginny called out, as the bird flew into the room, but falling to the floor before reaching Harry's waiting hands.
He untied the message as the small owl lay motionless. Ron took over to tend to his old bird as Harry read the message.
H, tell Hr to rd. AD
"And there's a symbol, a reversed Pertho," Harry read from the scrap of parchment. The handwriting was strained as if written by a weak hand.
"Death," Ginny muttered, "He predicted his death."
"So, what does the rest mean? '…tell Hr to read'?" Ron asked.
"It obviously has to do with Hermione, she's forever initialling notes with 'Hr' as a form of shorthand," Harry replied, "I need to tell her…"
"You'll do no such thing; she's just had major surgery and gave you a daughter. And you want to disturb her rest for this? No, you'll wait to confirm the meaning of that first message." They heard, as Luna stood at the door to Hermione's room. "She's been asking for you, Harry."
Harry let out a sigh and nodded his head, "Ron, go confirm what you can at the Ministry, there's bound to be some message there."
"Right," Ron replied and gave a half hearted salute before disappearing with a loud pop.
"Stupid git should have found an isolated room," Sirius said shaking his head.
Harry obeyed Luna's instruction and carefully put the two missives in his pocket before returning to his family. He pasted a warm smile on his face to hide the grief over the possible loss of one of his dearest friends.
"Darling, what's the matter?" she asked at once.
"I could never hide anything from you," he said, as he closed the door. She lay in her bed nursing their daughter. A nurse had been at her side to offer assistance if she had difficulty on her first try.
"May we be alone, for a few moments?" he asked the care-giver. She nodded her consent and quietly left as Harry came to the bed that held his new family.
"It's nothing for you to be concerned about; you've been through a fair bit today."
"No, tell me what happened," she said, the look of concern beginning to turn to fear.
He shook his head, "It's not good." He removed the first message and unrolled the parchment to show her the glasses.
"Those, they're Albus' glasses," she exclaimed.
"Possibly, I sent Ron to confirm it."
"Darling, I think he knew. He entrusted a package into my care when we returned. What was it he said?" she thought aloud. Annie stopped suckling and Hermione held her on her shoulder. A light, almost dainty burp escaped the tiny girl while Hermione continued to pat her back.
"When was this? I don't recall."
"When you left to find Caterina, Albus called me to the Ministry."
"I remember you said you went to see Ginny."
"Yes, but I was detained and brought to see Albus, I told you all that. And that's when he entrusted me with a bundle of documents; to be ' carried out by you, if I fail to return before your child is born' he said."
Harry sat on the hospital bed with his wife and child. He gently stroked the child's smooth head and kissed her, "Where is this pouch?"
"In the study, I left it in the vault with the manuscript. I felt it was important and must be safeguarded."
"Then until we have confirmations, it will remain there." He thought for a moment, "There was another note, a cryptic one from Albus. All it said was for you to read."
"Then I can only assume he meant that pouch," she replied. The finality of this request was evident. "He's gone, isn't he?"
"Yes, that's the appearance so far, but I still have hope he's alive.
She nodded and reached a free arm to him and he took held both mother and child, while he tried to suppress his fear.
"Darling, we are in the best of care here, go report to the Ministry with this. Please go, I love you," Hermione said from the family embrace.
"I won't leave you alone."
"Rubbish, Ron's here and so are the others, I'll be fine. Go do your duty."
He nodded, "I had sent Ron off to verify this, so they don't need me."
"No, you have that message and you have to take charge, Leave Sirius and the others if you're worried. Go," she commanded.
Reluctantly he stood and left his new family alone for the first time, only a couple hours after his daughter was born. He raised a hand and snapped his fingers, disappearing with a pop.
As an Auror, Harry was able to Apparate into various areas of the Ministry, his first stop was to meet with Gawain Robards and relate the details of his first message. He quickly covered the distance to the Chief Auror's office and knocked sharply.
"Come in Harry, we're expecting you," the voice on the other side commanded.
"Harry, you know everyone here?" Chief Robards asked. Ron and Shacklebolt stood to one side of the oak desk and to the other he could see a distraught Tonks next to a large wing-back chair.
"Of course," he replied, "Ron, Kingsley." He greeted both with a nod.
"Harry, we've just received word of a dreadful event, concerning a high ranking Ministry official who has been on sabbatical for the past six months."
"The Minister, Albus Dumbledore. I'm aware of his recent absence," Harry replied, but holding back his recent news.
"Yes, well, it seems he may have encountered some recent difficulty. We have a potential witness we were about to interview."
"Difficulty? Difficulty? The man's been murdered, he's bloody well dead," the voice from the chair broke out, as he stood to face the Auror Chief. In a flash Harry recognized his old friend.
"Remus, what happened?" Harry asked, his interrogative mode had been triggered.
"He asked me to meet him a fortnight back; it was just past the full moon so there wasn't any danger there. I've never seen his so frail and drawn out in my life."
"Where was this?"
"In Dover , we met there and he quickly took me to a cave in Wales , I think. There was evidence someone was living there, for quite a long time judging from the debris and accommodations."
"Who was he looking for in the cave?"
"I haven't a clue, but from the looks of it we had just missed the inhabitant. Albus and I spent a couple days searching through the objects left, there seemed to be a large cache of jewellery."
"Smugglers or thieves? Why would Dumbledore spend his time on such trivial crimes?"
"It is hard to say, several pieces were damaged and some were left in a pile of refuse."
"This makes little sense, why to some cave?"
"From there we found passages that had fresh markings and the address of a house where a Muggle family lived. We had to wait a few days for them to all leave, before we could search it. We found hidden passageways they obviously knew nothing about. These connected to a subterranean chamber that appeared to be a potions laboratory."
"So this was a wizard's home?" Ron asked.
"At one time, yes. We couldn't find any evidence of the original owner."
"Where was this house? What was the address?" Harry asked.
"Not sure, but it was in an older part of Wales , that much I'm certain. It was a dreary place, old and industrial. There were several mills on the stream nearby and a cobbled street to the house."
"What of the house?" Chief Robards asked.
"The house itself was quite normal, a quaint cottage from the outside and the furnishing too was normal for Muggles. But in the chamber, the walls were completely covered in stacks of books, most of them bound in black or brown leather. It appeared as if someone had tried to store an old library there. There were two large tables covered in potions and fresh supplies."
"Did you manage to recover any samples of the potions?"
"No. We found a list of items and the description of one object matched a piece in the caves."
"Please say you recovered that list."
Remus shook his head, "No, Albus insisted we left everything as it was, in case the owner returned."
"Then how did the Minister actually die? None of this is making a lick of sense."
"We returned to the caves, and Albus noticed a man near the entrance leaving. We followed for a while up the rocky embankment and found an empty cloak propped up with a small tree branch. While we were there, he started to write a message and tied it to the smallest owl I've seen and let it go."
"Pigwidgeon?" Ron asked.
"Yes," Harry interrupted. "I received a messaged from him less than an hour ago.
"And you haven't told anyone this?" Chief Robards barked, obviously irritated at evidence being concealed.
"Go on, Remus," Harry insisted.
"After he released the owl, he was shot in the neck from a crossbow's bolt. He tried to scream and reached for me, but fell back, off the edge. I found him on the rocks moments later, dead."
Chief Robards stood and glared at Harry, "Potter, you had deliberately withheld evidence. I would never have expected this from you."
"I wasn't certain of the facts and sent Ron here to confirm them."
"Then why didn't you come here yourself, or give that note to Auror Weasley to deliver? This is a serious breach of protocol."
"Sir, his wife just had a baby, I think he deserves some leniency," Ron interrupted.
"Baby or not, he should have brought this out to our attention." The anger and frustration was evident, as Harry watched the veins in his supervisor's neck bulge the same way Vernon Dursley's neck bulged when angered.
"Sir, I simply felt I needed to stay with my family and tell Hermione about the messages," Harry stated apologetically.
"What? You told someone outside this organization about this?"
"Sir, she's also a fully qualified and trained Auror, she simply chose a different vocation. And that second message was more for her."
"Second note? There was another? And you've not mentioned that? This is yet another serious breach of protocol. Hand over both messages and pray I don't ask for your Auror's Badge."
Slightly stunned, Harry put the two messages on the desk. The first one he received was the first Chief Robards opened. He unrolled the parchment on his desk to reveal the blood stained spectacles and the word 'Revenge' written in the minister's own blood.
"'Revenge'? What does this mean?" Chief Robards asked puzzled.
"That's what Hermione and I tried to figure out."
"Potter, I would recommend you refrain from further comment, until I sort out how to deal with your insubordination. Auror Weasley, you will be in charge of this investigation; any resources you require are approved."
"Yes, sir. I fully understand and I have a team already selected," Ron replied with a salute.
Chief Robards read the second note and furrowed his bushy brow as he tried to understand its meaning. "Potter, this note actually means something to you?"
"Actually, as I stated, it was a message to Hermione to read something. We both suspect Minister Dumbledore left another message in our home. My intention was to search the grounds as soon as I concluded my inquiries here."
Chief Robards turned again away from Harry and addressed Tonks directly. "Work with Auror Weasley on this matter, I want you to personally conduct the search of the Potter Residence for this next message and report back to me personally. Weasley, I expect you to also keep me personally informed of any developments. Shacklebolt, take Mr. Lupin to an interview chamber and secure a complete accounting of this miss-adventure. You are all dismissed, except you Potter; I want a word with you."
Harry remained where he stood, while the others left the Auror Chief's office to tend to their immediate tasks. Once the room cleared, the Chief motioned Harry to an inner room behind a bookcase. He produced his wand and pointed it to the desk, his voice bellowed through the office as a pre-arranged dressing down he maintained played out.
"There, in case anyone is listening, they should hear this and assume you've been reprimanded for your 'actions'. Now, I know the Minister left a bundle of documents in your wife's care. He confided in me that this may well be as dangerous a time as when you faced Tom Riddle alone."
"Sir?" Harry asked puzzled.
"Confused? Well, I'm not surprised; you really aren't as clever as your wife. She approached me with the Minister's approval shortly after you both returned from your little adventure. Neither would or could give any details, but I am under the strictest of orders to give the appearance you've fallen from favour. I have no idea why, but rest assured that personally I have every confidence in you."
"So, is all of this some elaborate act the Minister is playing out?" Harry asked.
"No, I'm afraid he may well be dead as Mr. Lupin related, and as I'm certain you are aware the Minister prepared for this scenario. He specifically instructed me to take this action and seeing as he may well be dead, I have to consider it to be a last request. Now, I believe Auror Weasley will insist you'll be placed on his team and, since I have already granted him any resource he required, I will have to allow that request, but I will do so with public reservations."
"So you want the appearance that I have fallen from favour, should I at some point appear to abandon the Service and the Ministry?"
"I can't tell you what to do from this point; the only two that you can inform are your wife, of course, and Ron Weasley. And I should make you aware that Mrs. Potter in unofficially attached to this office and will have authority of a covert operative."
"I think I'm beginning to understand, Sir. Is that all?"
"No, I'm afraid I must ask for your badge," he said reluctantly.
Harry removed the badge he had worn since a replacement had been issued, for the one lost, and turned it over to the Chief of Aurors. The older Auror passed his wand over the silver medallion and it reverted to the lower grade bronze version.
"There, if asked you offered your resignation, but I opted to lower your grade. And that should help the others look to Senior Auror Weasley, giving you more latitude in your investigations."
"So the demotion is part of the cover-up?"
"Actually, the demotion is real. You really should have informed me at once when you received those two messages. We'll see after this case is closed on any other actions. Dismissed."
They both left the smaller chamber timed perfectly for the recorded disciplinary speech to end.
"Dismissed," the recorded voice shouted, as Harry left the office.
Once outside the office, he was not very surprised to find the others, with the exception of Kingsley Shacklebolt and Remus, still in the hall waiting for Harry to exit.
"Just like old times, ah 'Arry? Except instead of Professor Snape's office and his detentions, now it's the ol' man's office. We all heard his shouting and ranting, he must have been…Bloody hell, Harry, he demoted you?" Ron began to blubber.
"Yeah, if the stupid git thinks he can come off dropping me back down, he'd best reconsider it."
"We thought you were about to be sacked," Tonks added.
"I did resign, but he refused it, said he didn't want me running around causing more trouble than he could cover up."
"Harry, I hate to ask this, but I do need to search your home. Do you know what he left there?" Tonks asked, as the group began to leave the corridor.
"No, I don't and I'd thank you to wait a bit, maybe I can save you the trouble. I'll go have a chat with Hermione and see if she has a clue."
"Technically I can't let you head off to interview a potential witness alone," Ron began, as they came to the Auror's Floo. The overhead sign clearly said Auror Business only, no unauthorized personal allowed.
"So, I can't see my own wife and child alone? Is that what you're saying?"
"No, Harry, I'm just saying we need to find what ever Professor Dumbledore left in your house and we need to be there when Hermione tells you what she knows."
The group left the Ministry through the Floo, to a secure fireplace prearranged in the hospital. After brushing the ash from their clothing, the Aurors unofficially escorted Harry to the maternity floor, to see a flurry of activity in the corridor.
Harry broke from the others and ran into the room where he left his family. A group of physicians worked on the hidden figure on the bed, only the heavy traces of blood on the floor left any hint of trouble.