Chapter 37
"That's odd," Harry murmured.
"What is it?" Fleur asked.
"The dowsing rods are leading me here, but I can't figure out what exactly I'm looking at," Harry replied.
"What do you mean?" Fleur asked. "It's an empty lot; clearly the spot where Dumont and Lestrange were buried, and we just need t…"
She trailed off as she tried to step forward, only to suddenly be hit with a wave of confusion that made her go still.
"See what I mean?" Harry asked.
"Could it be the Fidelius?" Luna asked.
"No," Harry replied, shaking his head. "I would wager that there is a house here and this isn't actually just a bizarrely empty lot between those ones, but it's heavily charmed. If I look away from it, or just down at these rods, I can make sense of that, but when I look up, all I see is a small, unkempt patch of land that I instinctively don't want to go near. This is very well warded."
"Why go to all that trouble, though?" Hermione asked. "Luna's right, and the Fidelius would do the same thing but even better. I doubt that your enchanted dowsing rods would even work if whoever did this had used them."
"They still would," Harry corrected her. "I soaked the left one in Augustin's blood and the right one in Isabelle's, and they would lead me to their bodies even if they were hidden by the Fidelius Charm, though I'd be unable to truly reach them. The Fidelius Charm requires something very particular, though, and it's why Voldemort never cast it in his entire long life."
"What?" Hermione asked.
"Trust," Harry replied. "You can't be your own secret keeper, so you need to be able to trust another living soul to do it. Voldemort couldn't do that, and it's entirely possible that whoever we're looking for is just as neurotic as he was."
"Well, whatever they've done, I should be able to destroy it easily enough," Rias grinned, calling on her powers and reaching towards the empty lot, only to go still. "Wha...what was I trying to destroy?"
"I was afraid of that," Harry muttered, wrapping an arm around the crimson-haired girl as she stumbled back. "Destroying the wards will require us to be able to focus on them, which they're designed to stop us from doing."
"There must be some way to take them down," Fleur fretted, and he ghosted his hand over hers comfortingly.
"We'll be able to pull it off, but it's going to take time," Harry replied. "In the meantime, I want you three to go around and see what you can find out about this lot. The muggles in the area aren't going to know much, as they probably see this place as an odd, unusable plot of land that's just always been this way, so I wouldn't ask about that much, but try to see if anyone remembers seeing someone dressed oddly in the area in the last few months. Augustin and Isabelle probably didn't die too long ago, so if anyone saw a typical wizard or witch around here recently, that would be potentially helpful."
"We'll ask around," Hermione nodded. A moment later, she looked suddenly excited and snapped her fingers, saying, "Oh! This will give me a chance to try out something I've been working on."
"What is it?" Fleur asked as the brunette reached into her mokeskin pouch and pulled out what looked like three small, leather wallets.
"I've enchanted these in ways that I think will come in handy," Hermione replied, opening one and revealing some blank, white paper inside.
"It's blank," Fleur pointed out, and she grinned.
"Keep looking," Hermione said, and a moment later, the paper developed an image that made Fleur gasp.
"That looks like an auror's identification," she marveled. "You would think you were one."
"They're enchanted to take on an image that the person holding it wants and the person looking at it can find believable," Hermione replied. "They come with mild compulsion and calming charms built in too, so while I doubt it would fool particularly powerful wizards and witches, and it definitely wouldn't work on devils or angels, it should work on the muggles easily enough."
"So they'll think we're official agents of whatever organization would believably question them?" Luna asked. "Neat."
"I came across the idea in the twin's notebook," Hermione grinned, and Harry looked at her in surprise.
"Fred and George?" he asked.
"Yeah, I found a number of books in the library that they'd scribbled ideas into," Hermione replied. "This was supposed to be functioning fake IDs for students who wanted to drink in pubs over the summer, but they never figured out how to make it work. I thought it was an interesting idea and managed to succeed where they didn't."
"Speaking of them, I wrote to Ron the other day, and he wrote back," Harry replied. "He's recovered from his run-in with Bellatrix, physically, anyway."
"Yeah, I checked on him too," Hermione sighed. "I know we drifted apart, but I still wanted to make sure he was okay. Anyway, we'll start asking around and see if anyone here has seen anyone suspicious."
"So, how exactly are we going to take down the wards around this place?" Rias asked. "I got a headache just trying to focus on them."
"There are ways to subtly examine a site like this without tripping the outer wards," Harry replied. "They're just really time-consuming and difficult. Once I can isolate the confusion ward and dispel it, it should be easier for the two of us to deal with the rest. We're going to have to be careful, though."
"This isn't amateur work by any means," Rias concurred. "It makes what Augustin and Isabelle put up around their safehouse look like child's play."
"It makes the wards on that cabinet look weak," Harry muttered. "Whoever we're dealing with here is powerful, and I would imagine rather old."
"Do you have any suspects in mind?" Rias asked. "I imagine that Voldemort had a pretty good grasp of the various power players in the world."
"There's one possibility that I really, really hope isn't the case," Harry muttered. "This isn't his style, and I can't think of any reason, from what we've seen so far, that Sebastian Delacour would even be on his radar, but if he's involved at all, things could get very complicated."
"Okay, thanks for your time," Luna beamed a while later as a very confused Frenchman watched a policewoman who looked like she should still be in high school skip across his yard.
The blonde quickly spotted Hermione and Fleur sitting together in a nearby park and joined them, sitting next to the Veela on the bench.
"Did you two find anything?" Luna asked, "Because the people in my section, while nice, hadn't seen much."
"Mine were similarly useless," Fleur muttered.
"One of the ones I spoke to did see someone in what looked like period dress several weeks ago, but he only saw them from the back," Hermione replied. "I'll have Harry take a peek in his mind later, but from his description, I'd say that the person was male, about six foot two, and of a slim build."
"He didn't see his face, though," Luna murmured, and Hermione shook his head. "Well, getting the guy's sex is something at least."
"Provided this man is the one who murdered our chief suspect," Fleur replied, "and even then, he could have been glamoured."
"I think Harry sent us away mostly because otherwise we'd have been standing around outside that vacant-looking lot for a while," Hermione commented. "He'd have sent for us already if he'd gotten in, but do you want to go back and check on him?"
"Actually, why don't we use these ID thingies for their intended purpose?" Luna asked, pointing across the street from the other side of the small park. "That bar looks like it's open."
"A glass of wine sounds divine right now," Fleur sighed.
"Why not?" Hermione asked.
The three of them made their way over to the small wine bar and walked inside, smiling as they saw that it wasn't terribly busy.
"I'm going to need to see some kind of identification from you three," a man said the moment he spotted them, and the three of them handed over Hermione's enchanted papers.
The man looked down at them, his eyes glazing over for a moment as the charms had their effects, and looked up at the three girls, clearly trying to make sense of what he was seeing. After a moment, the compulsion charms did their tricks, and his mind accepted it. Handing them back, he smiled and led to the nearest empty table.
"Would you like to see a wine list?" he asked.
"I'll take a glass of chardonnay," Fleur replied. "Whatever you think is best."
"Coming right up," the waiter nodded, "and you two?"
"I'll have what she's having," Hermione replied.
"Same," Luna added.
"Excellent," he smiled, heading off to get their drinks, and Fleur sighed, burying her head in her hands.
"We're here for you, Fleur," Luna whispered, wrapping an arm around the older girl's shoulders, and Fleur smiled weakly, taking her hand in hers.
"Thank you," she nodded. "I just...I hate feeling so helpless."
"We understand," Hermione murmured softly, "better than anyone."
"Of course," Fleur winced. "I'm so sorry…"
"It's fine," Hermione sighed. Switching to English, she said, "Look, the difference between our situations is that by the time we learned that our parents were in danger, they were already gone. Your father's still alive, and we can still save him."
"Plus, you have an expert on dark magic helping," Luna added.
"I know, and I'm grateful," Fleur replied. "I just keep feeling like my heart is going to collapse in on itself every few minutes, and it's driving me mad."
"Like Luna said, we're here for you," Hermione nodded, and the Veela smiled.
"I love you two," she whispered, and the two girls hugged her.
"Here is your wine," the waiter smiled, setting their glasses down on the table. "Is there anything else I could get you?"
"No, thank you," Luna smiled, though as she noticed something on the wall, she furrowed her brow and called after him. "Actually, could you tell me what these pictures are of?"
Lining the wall near their table was a series of pictures clearly of the bar itself, with the large table in the far corner featuring prominently.
"We host a billiards tournament once a year," the waiter replied. "The pictures are of the final match from each one."
"Oh, cool," Luna smiled. As he left, she asked, "What's billiards?"
"It's a name for a few different games involving cues," Hermione replied. "That's the long, thin stick in the man's hand here."
"We are clearly missing something," Fleur muttered as she set her glass down, half of her wine already drunk. "Augustin Dumont was the obvious suspect in my father's case. Not only was he a prominent arrest on his part who just happened to escape prison, but between the violence of the arrest and the nature of his crimes, there was every reason to think that things would be particularly personal between them."
"And that was the point," Hermione commented. "The aurors were supposed to make Augustin their chief suspect, search endlessly for him, and if they happened to find that safehouse, something that wasn't exactly guaranteed, given how much we had to cheat to pull it off, end up thinking that he and Isabelle Lestrange had fled to Australia."
"They'd then waste their time coordinating with the Australian authorities to search for a couple who never made it there while my papa died," Fleur spat.
"Their bodies would then never be found, and it would remain a cold case forever," Luna finished. "Whoever did this, while evil, is smart too."
"That's the thing, though," Fleur muttered. "We already knew that the person who did this had to be knowledgeable, given the curse used and how they managed to get Papa's blood, and we ruled out half of our suspects on the grounds that they were too stupid to pull that off, but I can't think of anyone we read about who I'd think could pull this off. None of them really struck me as masterminds."
"It could easily be someone we haven't even looked into yet," Hermione mused, and Fleur scowled, downing the rest of her glass.
"In which case, we've wasted precious time looking at dead ends," she muttered. "Genuinely dead in this case."
"Hey, I think we can safely say that whoever killed Augustin and Isabelle also cursed your father, given what we found at the safehouse," Luna assured her, "and that means that we are on the guy's trail. Plus, whoever did this probably didn't think that we'd manage to track down their bodies like we have."
"That's tr…" Fleur went to say, only to trail off as she stared up at the wall. "What the hell?"
"What is...Fleur!?" Hermione hissed as the Veela stood up and took one of the pictures off the wall, examining it more closely.
"Pardon me, miss, but I'm going to have to ask you to put that back," the waiter said, rushing over to them.
Fleur paid him no heed, looking at the picture so closely that her nose was nearly touching it.
"When was this taken?" she asked.
"Miss, please put that ba…" the waiter went to say, only to freeze as her eyes turned black with rage.
"When?!" Fleur shrieked, her voice sounding avian, and both Hermione and Luna jumped to their feet.
"A...a...a few months ago," the waiter stammered, and Fleur put the picture back and left without a word.
"Sorry about her; her father's in the hospital, and we don't know if he's going to make it," Hermione said, taking more than enough francs, out of her wallet to cover the drinks. "Keep the change. Bye."
"Thanks for the wine; it was really good," Luna commented, downing the rest of her glass before rushing after Hermione.
The two of them found Fleur pacing back and forth outside the bar, looking nearly murderous.
"Care to fill us in on what the hell that just was?" Hermione muttered.
"My father was in that picture," Fleur replied shakily.
"Your father is a billiards champion?" Luna asked.
"No, he wasn't competing; he was in the background," Fleur replied. "I had to look more closely, but I know it was him."
"Was he with someone?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, but I couldn't see the other person's face," Fleur replied. "My father, months ago, just happened to have a drink in a bar within walking distance of the place where his would-be murderer has stashed two bodies from a case of his? That can't be a coincidence, particularly because neither our home nor his office is anywhere near Compiegne."
"You think he was investigating something?" Luna asked.
"He hasn't done actual fieldwork in years, or so Maman believes," Fleur replied. "I think he knows more than he's let on, but he's never going to share it with me or Harry because that stubborn fool would rather die than let me help him!"
"Fleur?" Harry asked, and she whipped around, spotting him by the entrance to the bar. "I wondered where you three had gotten...oof."
He grunted as she jumped into his arms and he wrapped them around her tightly, running his fingers through her hair.
"Rias and I got through the wards," he murmured. "She's waiting there for us if you want to come look inside. What did I miss?"
"I'll tell you later," Fleur sighed. "Let's go."
"Later," Hermione mouthed, and Harry nodded, deciding to let it rest for the time being.
The four of them made their way back to the site, and the three girls all gasped as they saw the house that had been uncovered. It was a simple two-story structure, small and unimposing, but what made it stand out was the sheer rot of it. It looked dilapidated and ruined, as though it had been untouched for decades and was barely holding together at all.
"Um, is it safe to go in there?" Hermione asked.
"I'm almost certain that it is," Harry replied. "I think the look of it is an illusion."
"It's been made to look that way?" Fleur asked.
"As a final defense mechanism, yes," Harry replied. "I might be wrong, and we're not going in until I'm sure, but Rias is currently trying to…"
Before he could finish that sentence, the house transformed in an instant, its rotten walls and patchy roof giving way to reveal a perfectly pristine little house.
"As I was saying," Harry chuckled. "Shall we?"
"I imagine we're going to have to be careful," Luna murmured.
"Yes, though it wouldn't shock me if there weren't terribly many traps inside," Harry replied. "Few people could have gotten through everything that our dark wizard or witch put up here, and while there is something to be said for redundancy, it will depend entirely on how big a fan our foe is of overkill."
"We think that it might be a man," Hermione piped up. "Someone I spoke to caught sight of what he thought was a man in period dress walking down this street a while ago. He only saw them from behind, though."
"Hmm, I'll speak to this person later," Harry murmured as Rias joined them, having been searching behind the house.
"I think that's the last of it," she sighed. "The sheer amount of power in that illusion spell was significant."
"What are the chances that entering this place will trigger something you missed and summon whoever owns the place?" Hermione asked.
"Not great," Harry replied. "I was quite thorough."
He unlocked the door and opened it with a wave of his hand before stepping inside. As he suspected, he didn't detect anything immediately and signaled for the others to follow him.
"I'm going to guess that our suspect really is a man," Hermione murmured as she looked around, and Rias chuckled.
"The décor is rather spartan, huh?" the redhead asked.
It was true, and as Harry looked around, he found himself wondering if what furniture he saw wasn't part of yet another illusion, though not the magical kind. There was a table and a few chairs in the living room, though none of them looked like they'd ever been used for anything. The same was true of the few pieces of furniture in the kitchen and dining room.
"This isn't a home," Luna murmured, checking for curses on the counter before wiping a finger through the dust on it.
"It's not very French either," Fleur commented, "though whether that is meant to throw people off or not, I cannot say. Who's checking upstairs?"
"You and Rias can," Harry replied, reaching out towards a door in the main hallway he found and furrowing his brow, "but first, I think we should all look down here."
"What do you...oh," Rias muttered as she felt the power coming from just behind that door. "I almost missed that."
"There was another minor ward on the door, though I dispelled it easily enough," Harry replied. "Stay on your guard in here. We have no idea what we're heading into."
He vanished the door and led the way downstairs, coming to an abrupt halt as he found what awaited him.
"Oh dear," Luna breathed, looking away from the corpses as soon as she spotted them, feeling her stomach lurch.
"That's Augustin," Fleur breathed. "What in the world?"
"Well, at least I didn't throw up this time," Hermione muttered.
Strapped to two tables were the bodies of Augustin Dumont and Isabelle Lestrange. They were utterly nude and covered in little cuts that initially looked random, but Harry realized after a moment were runes.
"He carved into them," he muttered. "What the fuck?"
"Um, didn't Dumont lose an arm to your father, Fleur?" Rias asked.
"He...that's right!" Fleur exclaimed. "How did he regrow it?"
Sure enough, the body of Dumont had a full four limbs, though as Harry picked up the right one and beheld it more closely, he quickly came to a conclusion about that.
"It happened here," he said. "See how pale this is from the elbow down?"
"It had never seen the sun!" Hermione exclaimed. "It looks like these two were...experimented on."
"I suspect that they were," Harry said. "These runes carved into them all feel like they were charged with magic, though it's mostly faded by now. I can't even begin to figure out what they were supposed to do. Voldemort never played around with anything like this."
"So you don't know what whoever did this was trying to achieve?" Hermione asked.
"I can hazard a guess or two, but no," Harry replied. "It looks to me like there were a number of experiments run here. Whoever did this used these two like lab rats."
"I can't say I feel bad for either of them, given Augustin's crimes, but this looks to have been a horrendous ending for them," Fleur murmured. "What sort of monster are we chasing here?"
"The darkest kind, I would wager," Harry replied, looking them over and trying to see if he could find any clues left behind by the person responsible.
"Why just leave them here like this?" Luna asked. "They're dead, and the experiments are clearly over. Why not just bury them, or even vanish their remains?"
"Wizards and witches need to be dead a while before you can vanish their remains easily," Harry replied. "Vanishing charms don't work on living creatures in general, but they also can't be used on the recently deceased because our inherent magic will fight against it. Once the bodies begin to rot and the magic dissipates, it becomes easier."
"This could also be another experiment," Hermione mused. "They look quite well preserved for people who presumably weren't just killed, given how long it took you to deal with the wards outside."
"If they were just killed, though, that could mean that the guy who did this might easily return at any moment," Rias added, and most of them stiffened at that. "Do you see anything on them that might tell us what we're dealing with here?"
"No," Harry replied. "Whoever did this cleaned up the scene well enough, which is interesting given that they had no reason to think that anyone would be coming by."
"So we're dealing with a very clean murderer," Luna said.
"Conceivably," Harry murmured, scratching at his chin as he looked down at the bodies. "There is one way that I might learn a little more about what killed these two."
"What is it?" Rias asked.
"A spell Voldemort found in an old, long-lost tome when he was young," Harry replied. "It's a simple application of necromancy meant to show someone's last moment."
"How so?" Hermione asked, intrigued.
"It conjures an image in light and shadow of how someone died, provided you cast it on the spot that they did," Harry replied.
"So, sort of like the Resurrection Stone?" Luna asked, and he shook his head.
"No," Harry replied. "That actually brought the consciousness of a living being back to speak whereas this just shows a brief moment, sort of like a grainy recording. When we die, especially if we die violently, we leave a trace of energy there, like an imprint in the world, and this spell draws on it. Beware, though, you will see their dying moments."
"Do it," Fleur said, and he nodded.
He gave Hermione and Luna a moment to look away, something they didn't do, before reaching out to Augustin and casting "Loqui Mortis."
Instantly, the body of the dead man became overshadowed by his shade, who squirmed and struggled against his bindings.
"I'll fucking kill you," Hermione said, reading the shades lips. "I'll fucking kill you, you fucking...damn it."
"Died before he could finish that?" Fleur asked, and the brunette nodded. Sighing, she muttered, "Even a slur of some kind might have given us something."
"Loqui Mortis," Harry cast on him again, watching the shade struggle in his dying moments.
"What actually killed him?" Rias asked. "We don't see him get hit by anythi…"
"Shh!" Harry hissed, casting the spell again and looking closely at the shade, wincing as he realized that he actually was seeing what he thought he was. As the shade disappeared again, he felt Augustin's neck and sighed. "Shit."
"What is it?" Rias asked.
"Just a moment," Harry replied, turning to Isabelle. "Loqui Mortis."
There were no last words from her as the shade's mouth was just held open in a silent scream of pain, but Harry barely noticed, his eyes trained on her neck where a barely perceptible collar showed.
"That collar," Hermione murmured as she noticed what he was staring at. "Do you recognize it?"
"I do," Harry sighed, leaning back against the nearest wall and running a hand over his face.
"'Arry?" Fleur asked. "Do you know something you haven't told me?"
"From the start, I thought it was highly, highly unlikely that Klaus Reinhardt, the ancient wizard who helped create Nathresia's Bane in the first place, would be involved in cursing your father," Harry replied. "The man practically makes sport out of being as obviously dark as can be yet managing not to cross the line into criminality in ways that could let the authorities deal with him. He advised Grindelwald back in the day, mentored Voldemort, and has probably directly aided dozens more like them during his long life, getting away with all of it because he never gets his hands dirty. Going after your father, the head of the French DMLE, like this is so out of character for him it's insane, but those collars, I know that he came up with them."
"What do they do?" Hermione asked.
"They suppress people's magic," Harry replied. "Putting one of them on a wizard or witch prevents them from calling on their magic in any way and if they didn't also kill them within hours, they'd have already been adopted by every magical prison in the world. I would wager that they were actually what killed these two."
"So you think that this Reinhardt was here?" Fleur asked.
"I doubt it, but this is the second connection to him in this case now, and I can't believe that that's a coincidence," Harry replied. "He made a horcrux centuries ago and is at least as dangerous as Voldemort, so I was reluctant to tangle with him unless I had to, but...we need to speak with him. I just can't imagine why the hell he'd do something this obvious."
"I think my father got too close to something," Fleur sighed. "The reason I was so upset earlier was that I came across a picture in that bar we stopped in that he was in the background of. I refuse to believe that he just happened to be in this area, so close to this house, months ago and that that isn't connected."
"It would be a strange coincidence," Harry replied. "Rias, could you get your family's servants to search this place further?"
"Of course," Rias replied. "Where is this Klaus Reinhardt?"
"He lives in a well-hidden house in the middle of a forest park in Hamburg," Harry replied. "Hermione, Luna, and I will go there, and you can meet us once you've arranged for this place to be searched. Tell them to leave the bodies alone."
"Um, where am I to go?" Fleur asked, her eyes flashing dangerously. "If you think for a moment that I am going to stay away while you confront a man who might have cursed my father…"
"I still think he didn't do it," Harry sighed. "Klaus is an evil prick, don't get me wrong, but something about this just feels off, and if he isn't the one responsible, then I really don't want you picking a fight with him. We could beat him, but he'd come back, and trust me when I say you don't want an immortal enemy if you can avoid making one. If he is the one responsible, then we'll deal with him, but either way we won't be finishing him off today."
"Voldemort had no idea where his horcrux is?" Luna asked.
"None," Harry replied, "and we wouldn't have the luxury of being able to interrogate a piece of him this time. That's why I really, really hoped that he wasn't involved."
"If he is the who tried to kill my father, I want to be the one who kills him," Fleur scowled, and Harry nodded.
"I understand," he replied. "While we go to Germany, though, I want you to speak with your father. See if you can get him to talk about why he was in Compeigne."
"He's not going to tell me anything," Fleur huffed, "though if I tell Maman that he was doing actual investigative work, perhaps the two of us can get through to him together. I won't risk that if he's still suffering the effects of the curse, though."
"Like I say, just try to find out what you can," Harry replied, kissing her softly. "I'll tell you what I learn from Reinhardt later."
"I don't know what I'd do without you," Fleur murmured, and he smiled before stepping back and taking Hermione's and Luna's hands in his own.
"Good luck," Harry smiled.
"Good luck," Fleur replied as she watched him disappear in a magic circle.
"Your father's just trying to protect you, Fleur," Rias commented.
"I know, and I wish he'd stop," Fleur muttered. "Of the two of us, he is in far greater danger."
"Have you considered tell him about what you've become?" Rias asked, and the Veela shook her head.
"No," Fleur replied. "He's dealing with enough as is and wouldn't find that nearly as assuring as I'd like him to."
Rias sighed and wished her luck before going to get some servants to search the house. Fleur steeled herself and teleported home, hoping that she might actually get her father to tell her something useful.
"That doesn't look very impressive," Luna murmured as she peered out at the small house nestled in the middle of the Marienhohe Forest Park. "Is there an illusion spell on it?"
"No," Harry replied. "The house itself is a simple, small, one-story thing, but it hides more than you can imagine. Reinhardt lives in what I can only refer to as a reverse tower."
"His home extends underground?" Hermione asked.
"Around ten stories," Harry replied. "It's magical as all hell, and I'm sure that he's made extensive use of space-expansion charms, but yes, his home is mostly a subterranean thing."
"There you are," Rias commented from the sky, and Harry smiled as he felt her and Akeno flying towards them, the pair of them invisible to avoid making a scene.
"So Rias says we're fighting an immortal wizard?" Akeno asked as the two landed and revealed themselves.
"If we can't avoid it, yes," Harry replied.
"You know his home better than we do, so what's the plan?" Rias asked.
"I want you four to stay out here to start with," Harry replied. "If you sense things turning violent, come join me, but to start, I'd like to see if I can just talk to him."
"Alright," Rias nodded.
"So what, you're just going to knock?" Luna asked.
"I won't have to," Harry replied as he approached the house.
It looked just as it had when Voldemort first found it decades earlier, a nondescript, utterly unimpressive thing. It was charmed in such a way that the local muggles largely ignored it, and the odd time that they caught glimpses of it, most just assumed that it was used to store equipment used by the people who maintained the park and gave it no more thought than that. Harry furrowed his brow as he drew close, knowing that Reinhardt had to have already sensed his approach, something he never failed to do when Voldemort called on him, but he wasn't stopped. Reaching the door, he wondered if the man was simply out, but as he raised his hand to knock on the door, it swung slowly open.
"Klaus Reinhardt?" he called out. "My name is Harry Potter, and I've come to ask a few questions."
"Come inside, Harry Potter," Reinhardt called out. Harry did as he said, and as he crossed the threshold, the ancient wizard added, "Or should I say, Fluchtvormtod."
"What are you…" Harry went to ask, only to see a dozen knives flying his way.
Vanishing them, he jumped to the right, avoiding the organ-melting curse that followed, and threw a lightning bolt in Klaus' direction, scowling as the man casually batted it aside.
"I'm not Voldemort," he scowled, and Klaus revealed himself. He looked just like he always had, dressed in the same simple black robes he always wore, his milky eyes peering right at him as though he could actually see with them.
"Aren't you?" the ancient man asked, stroking his white beard and grinning at him. "You reacted like him, you're holding yourself as he alvays has, und you're even glaring at me in ze same vay he did vhen I first tested his reflexes all zose years ago. I vondered how you managed to best him, but…"
"Harry!" Rias exclaimed, rushing in with the others on her trail.
"Rias, wait!" Harry exclaimed.
"A devil?" Reinhardt breathed before cackling. "How fascinating! Show me vhat you can do, young von."
Harry watched in shock as he sent a couple overpowered blasting curses as Rias, his milky eyes going wide as she destroyed them, and when she threw a ball of destructive energy his way, he didn't even try to block it, taking it right to the chest and dying instantly as the Power of Destruction atomized his body.
"Fuck!" Harry growled.
"Oh, vorry not, Herr Potter," Reinhardt chuckled as he apparated inside. "Zank you, Rias Gremory; zat body had started to get too old for my liking."
"What the hell?" Akeno asked, looking the man up and down, and Harry had no answer for her.
He looked like himself, more or less, but where the body Rias destroyed had been utterly wizened, its posture stooped, and the wrinkles on its face very deep, this one looked around fifty years old. Harry realized immediately that he must have been preparing to move into the new body when they arrived, as he was already clothed and had apparated over instantly.
"You cloned yourself?" Hermione asked, and Reinhardt chuckled as he summoned his wand from what remained of his old body.
"I grew tired of setting up rituals to make a new body for myself vhen my current von started to get, as you English say, a little long in ze tooth, centuries ago," Reinhardt explained as he pocketed his wand in his robes. "Zere vas nothing zat could be done for it, zough, but vhen von of my muggle contacts let me know several years ago about something zey vere attempting, it inspired me."
"Why did you attack us?" Rias asked, still wary.
"I attacked him because I vanted to test him," Reinhardt replied, pointing at Harry, "and as for you, I zought I knew who you vere but vasn't sure und, as you happened upon me vhile I vas preparing my new body, I figured I could find out for sure und dispose of ze old von in von shot. You really aren't him, are you, Herr Potter?"
"No," Harry replied. "Voldemort would never have willingly worked with the devils, much less accepted one's offer to become their servant."
His unseeing eyes widened at that, and he chuckled.
"I zought I sensed something different about you," Reinhardt grinned, "yet still, you do react like he always did in a fight. Vhat a curious creature you are."
"I'll answer some of your questions if you agree to answer mine in turn," Harry replied, and his grin widened.
"Please come in," Reinhardt said, "and introduce yourselves."
"I'm Harry Potter, as you know, and these are…" Harry went to say when Reinhardt silenced him with a wandless spell.
"I said introduce yourselves," he clarified, sitting down, and Harry scowled, dispelling the charm with ease.
"I'm Akeno Himejima," Akeno replied, "Ria's queen."
"You smell like angel," Reinhardt murmured, eyeing her curiously before snapping his fingers. "You descend from Baraqiel, don't you? Zat's vhy Tom believed he vas involved with Potter here."
"You…" Akeno stammered, and he chuckled.
"I told him zat didn't make sense," Reinhardt sighed, shaking his head. "Vhat about you two?"
"I'm Luna Lovegood," Luna replied.
"Hermione Granger," Hermione said. "You said that you have muggle contacts? That's an odd thing for a pureblood."
"I'm older zan ze Statute of Secrecy, girl," Reinhardt spat, "und I never agreed with it. Muggles have zeir uses und I have managed to learn utterly fascinating zings from zem over ze centuries."
"Through experimentation?" Rias asked pointedly, and he furrowed his brow at her curiously.
"Zere is little I could stand to learn zrough ze sort of experiments you're clearly zinking of," Reinhardt replied as he led them into his sitting room and sat down. "Ah, I had almost forgotten vhat younger joints felt like. Please sit down."
He waved his wand at the large keg in his kitchen, and six steins quickly filled with beer before floating over. Hermione gave Harry a questioning look, but he just waved his hand dismissively, knowing that the beer was safe.
"Why are you blind?" Luna asked. "If you could make a whole new body for yourself, why not give yourself the ability to see?"
"Zere's nothing wrong with my sight," Reinhardt replied. "My eyes atrophied over time in my first body but I had outgrown ze need of zem by zen. I see all zat I need to even if my eyes zemselves only make out basic shapes. I could fix zem, of course, but vhy vould I distract myself so? You did not come all zis vay, zough, to ask about my eyes."
"I'll cut to the chase: were you involved in the cursing of Sebastian Delacour?" Harry asked, and Rienhardt smiled.
"I suspect you know enough about me to know that I trade knowledge for knowledge with new associates," he said. "How is it zat you overcame your prophesied enemy?"
"We could just make you talk," Akeno muttered, and he laughed.
"I could leave zis body at vill, daughter of Baraqiel," Reinhardt replied, earning a murderous glare from the raven-haired girl, "und I have more like it in hidden facilities all over ze vorld, each in stasis, avaiting my need."
"Voldemort was an idiot," Harry replied, deciding to play along for the time being. "He ignored your warning and made more than the three horcruxes you advised him to stop at. When his killing curse bounced off of me as a baby, destroying his first body, his soul was unstable, and a piece broke off, finding the nearest living host. That infamous unhealing scar in my forehead was him."
"You had a piece of him inside you all zis time?" Reinhardt marveled.
"Yes, and with the help of Ajuka Beelzebub, I managed to bind it to my will and forced it to teach me everything he knew," Harry continued, throwing out the name just to see how he'd react.
"You are vell-connected," Reinhardt murmured. "To answer your question, no, I had nothing to do vith Delacour's condition, zough I do know of it."
Harry studied him carefully and eventually decided that he was telling the truth. Voldemort had gotten to know Reinhardt very well over the years he spent learning from him and while the dead lunatic couldn't always understand basic human emotions, he did have a particular knack for knowing when he was being lied to. He could be fooled, of course, but it was rare and he knew Reinhardt's tells well.
"He's been afflicted by a curse you helped invent, though," Hermione piped up, "and when we found the bodies of our chief suspects earlier, they had been bound with magic-disrupting collars you invented too."
"You are vell-informed, zough of course you vould be," Reinhardt chuckled, looking at Harry.
"Is there anyway to save someone from Nathresia's Bane without finding and destroying the blood sample used in the curse?" Harry asked, figuring that if anyone would know, it was the man in front of him.
"What made you seek out the aid of House Gremory?" Reinhardt asked.
"I was entered into the Triwizard Tournament against my will," Harry replied. "I was too young to be in it, not particularly talented as a wizard in general, and figured I was doomed, so when I learned about the devils, I was desperate enough to try to reach out to them."
"Under Albus Dumbledore's nose, zen," Reinhardt chuckled. "No, zere is but vonvay to save someone from Nathesia's Bane. Vhen Darius sought me out, trying to find a vay to end the vife who had scorned him so openly, he brought vith him a plethora of magical tomes he wasn't talented enough to make use of. Ze knowledge he gave me both paid for und helped create zat curse."
"Why do it, though?" Hermione asked. "Nathresia had done nothing to you."
"Vhat do you want to hear, girl?" Reinhardt asked. "Perhaps I sympathized vith a man whose wife belittled him vithout fear, relying on ze strength and reputation of her brothers to keep her safe from his wrath? Perhaps she reminded me in some vay of a voman who had done me such harm in ze past. Perhaps even, I just didn't care und zought zat the life of one person was worth ze knowledge I gained in exchange."
"That's evil," Hermione scowled, and he laughed.
"I can sense ze taint of ze underworld in you too," Reinhardt replied. "Vhy did you agree to become a creature of sin? Vas it so you could live for millennia? Vield power far beyond ze average witch?"
"It…" Hermione trailed off, suddenly uncomfortable about the fact that she'd become a devil in large part so she could read more of the omnilibrary than she could have ever done as a mortal. "I'm nothing like you."
"Of course you aren't; you're a child," Reinhardt scoffed. "Live for five hundred years, seeing people make ze same mistakes againund again across ze planet und beyond und ve'll see if you can still sit zere und pass judgment on me."
"We've gotten off topic," Harry piped up. "Do you know who cursed Sebastian Delacour?"
Reinhardt sat there for a moment and sipped his beer, considering what he wanted to ask in exchange.
"Vhat made you so interesting to ze heiress of House Gremory?" Reinhardt asked, and Harry froze, wondering how exactly he should answer that.
"I can answer that," Rias piped up. "My parents had arranged a betrothal for me that I didn't care for, and when Harry summoned me, I saw an opportunity to get out of it. What would have been a one-time transactional thing became more, though, as we developed feelings for each other."
"Young love," Reinhardt murmured, sounding like he was trying to decide whether he believed that or not. "To answer your question, I do, and I zink ve've reached ze end of ze question und answer portion of zis meeting. Herr Potter, Fraulein Gremory, please follow me. Ze rest of you stay here und feel free to help yourself to more of my brew."
"It's very good, by the way," Luna smiled.
"Harry?" Hermione and Akeno asked in unison, and he just held up a hand and nodded comfortingly.
Reinhardt opened up the hidden staircase in the middle of the room and led Harry and Rias down. The first floor under the ground was his personal library, a place that Voldemort had visited a few times with him, and from there followed the floor containing his ritual room, training room, and indoor greenhouse. He'd once told his young pupil that there were ten floors in his underground tower and that his bedroom lay at the very bottom across from his treasure room, but he'd never seen any of the lower floors. Sure enough, he led them into his library and pulled a false tome back, opening the door to his study.
"How many bodies did you find wearing my collars?" Reinhardt asked.
"Two," Harry replied, and he nodded, pulling open a drawer in his desk and taking out a stack of carefully arranged pieces of parchment.
"I sell zose zings from time to time to zose who know how to contact me," he murmured. "I could give you a copy of ze last letter I received requesting two of zem specifically. From zere, I'm sure you'd be able to track down ze perpetrator."
"Wait, did you not give someone the curse?" Rias asked.
"Not for many years," Reinhardt replied. "Whoever did zis already knew it, zough zat is not too surprising. Knowledge of it is rare, but I am far from ze only one who could have helped zis person with zat part."
That, Harry knew to be true, and it was why he hadn't considered coming here earlier.
"What do you want in exchange?" he asked, and Reinhardt smirked.
"Tell me, Fraulein Gremory, have you explained contracts to your young servant here?" he asked.
"Not fully," Rias replied. Looking at Harry, she said, "You and I entered into a contract when we first met."
"I remember," Harry murmured, smiling slightly as he looked into her eyes.
"They're a very important part of being a devil," Rias explained, "and I planned to tell you more about them after the summer. Suffice it to say for now that devils establish contracts with humans regularly, exchanging services for boons of one sort or another."
"It vas for souls once, but zat practice fell out of fashion after a time, as I understand," Reinhardt piped up.
"So what would be the terms of this contract you have in mind?" Harry asked.
"In exchange for zis letter I want you to agree to procure for me ze grimoire of ze person who used ze collars on your dead suspects," Reinhardt replied, and Harry furrowed his brow.
"It occurs to me that there is no guarantee that the person who ordered these is the same man who killed them," he replied. "It could have been someone else who bought a pair from you some time ago."
"That's true, but I doubt it," Reinhardt replied. "Zis request was singularly unique for one simple reason. I don't know who wrote it."
"What?" Harry asked. "You only do business with people who manage to find you, and that isn't generally a great list of people."
"Correct," Reinhardt nodded, "und yet zis just happened to appear in ze middle of my study von day, complete vith a basket charmed to give me ze exact number of galleons I charge for two collars ze moment I placed zem inside it. Oh, und it came in a month ago."
"Not that long before we figure that Dumont and Lestrange were abducted," Harry thought to himself. "The person who did it could have just happened to close in on them around then and wanted these to help make it easier to take them in and experiment on them."
"Ze last time I sold any of ze collars before zat vas two years ago und it vas just a single one zat time," Reinhardt added. "I don't exactly market zem."
"That...does make it seem more likely," Rias murmured.
"And I should be able to track down who wrote it easily enough," Harry said to himself. "So you just want the grimoire of the person who killed my suspects?"
"Zat's all," Reinhardt nodded. "I am not a greedy man, as you know. You really have all of his memories?"
"His knowledge," Harry clarified, and the old man chuckled.
"In ze end 'e undid himself," Reinhardt muttered, shaking his head. "Fraulein, if you could conjure the contract?"
"Just a moment," Rias murmured, summoning a roll of parchment and jotting down the specifics of their basic agreement with a wave of her hand.
Reinhardt read it over before signing and handing it to Harry, who gazed down at it and contemplated what he'd be agreeing to. Throughout the entire conversation Reinhardt had seemed to be perfectly genuine, and desiring the grimoire of the person capable of sending the request as he had enough to make a deal like this was in character.
"You will both be bound by the terms of this once it's signed," Rias warned him. "They must be fulfilled to the best of your abilities."
"I have no problem handing over a simple grimoire," Harry said as he signed it. "Especially since I'll be able to read it myself from the omnilibrary."
"Here you are," Reinhardt said, handing him the letter, which he quickly read over.
Reinhardt,
I need two of your magic suppression collars post haste. This basket is charmed to pay you your fifty galleons the moment they're placed inside.
"Short and to the point," Harry muttered to himself. "Whoever did this left a trace of their...his magic on it, so I should be able to use that."
"As a goodwill gesture, let's say, I'll tell you free of charge zat I tried to track ze basket after it left und as far as I could tell, it went to somewhere in central Ireland," Reinhardt said, and Harry looked at him in surprise.
"Ireland?" he asked incredulously.
"So it seemed," Reinhardt replied. "Quiteze international caper, no?"
"An Irishman reached out to a German to help him kill some Frenchmen," Rias surmised, agreeing with his sentiment.
"Anyway, let's go check on your friends," Reinhardt said, grabbing them both and apparating them upstairs.
"...the moon?" Luna asked in awe as they appeared.
"Yes, they…" Hermione went to say, only to trail off as she spotted the others.
"How did it go?" Akeno asked, eyeing Reinhardt suspiciously.
"Well," Harry replied. "I'll explain later. What's up?"
"Hermione was wondering why you had a picture of this muggle guy," Luna said, looking at Reinhardt, who chuckled.
"Wernher?" he asked. "He vas an old acquaintance of mine."
"You knew Wernher Von Braun?" Hermione asked in surprise.
"I did say I had muggle contacts," Reinhardt chuckled. "I met his father when he was a boy, und we had some dealings back in ze twenties. After ze muggle side of zis country got into a little spat in ze forties, he fled to America, und I...arranged for him to come to believe zat I had had a hand in zat. I zought he was a brilliant mind und zat having such a man believe he owed me could be beneficial, which it ended up being. Vhen ze Americans were preparing to send men to ze moon, he informed me of it ahead of time und helped me get one of them to take a little something of mine up with zem."
Hermione's jaw dropped and she paled dramatically as she caught on before anyone else to what he was intimating.
"Are...are you saying that your horcrux…" she stammered as he just grinned.
"It is impolite to ask people you just met such personal questions, Fraulein," Reinhardt chided lightly. "Herr Potter, I eagerly await ze delivery of my new grimoire."
"Fleur?" Apolline asked as she marched into the house. "What's wrong?"
"How is Papa doing?" Fleur asked.
"I'm feeling better, little flower," Sebastian replied as he walked in, looking stiff but not terribly pained. "The sores have already closed back up, and Healer Allain thinks that I'll feel back to normal by tomorrow, at least for a while."
"Good," Fleur replied. "There's something that I need to ask you about, and I was hoping that you wouldn't be feeling too bad when I did."
"That sounds serious," Sebastian frowned. "Should we continue this in my study?"
"Is Gabbie here?" Fleur asked. When he shook his head, she said, "Then no. I actually think the three of us should have this conversation together."
"Fleur?" Apolline asked as she led them into the sitting room and silenced it the moment they all sat down.
"Why were you in Compiegne a few months ago?" Fleur asked and Sebastian froze.
"I...don't recall visiting it," Sebastian replied slowly, and she glared at him.
"You had a drink in a bar called the Velvet Temple," Fleur replied. "I know because there's a picture with you in the background of it that the waiter I asked said was taken a few months ago, likely not long before you were cursed."
"Sebastian?" Apolline asked, confused as the man tensed.
"Fleur, I think you might be mistaken," Sebastian said as calmly as he could. "Just how clear was this picture?"
"Clear enough," Fleur replied. "I stopped in there for a drink because Harry needed time to get through the wards on an abandoned house where we found the bodies of Augustin Dumont and Isabelle Lestrange."
Sebastian's eyes went wide, and he jumped to his feet, shouting, "I told you two to leave this alone! The aurors..."
"The aurors haven't found half of what we have!" Fleur hissed. "Isabelle Lestrange broke Dumont out of prison and ferried him away to a safehouse where we found a scroll detailing how to cast Nathresia's Bane and information on Australia. The aurors were meant to find that and think that they had cursed you and fled there, but we figured out that it was a trick and tracked down their actual location, finding that they'd been murdered by whoever cursed you."
"That...surely you see just what a dangerous figure we're dealing with," Sebastian lamented. "I don't want you putting yourself in danger on my account!"
"You're dying, Papa," Fleur whimpered, her eyes filling with tears. "If we can't find the person who did this and destroy what they used for the curse, it will kill you within weeks. How can you ask me to just sit back and let that happen?"
"Fleur," Sebastian sighed.
"Tell me what you were investigating," Fleur begged. "Look how much 'Arry and I have already accomplished from the outside."
"Fleur, you are not an auror," Sebastian sighed. "By all rights I should be arresting you for interfering in an official investigation."
"You were doing fieldwork?" Apolline asked, her voice icy as she spoke up for the first time since Fleur began explaining what she'd been up to, and Sebastian went still.
"Darling…" he went to say, only to pale as he saw feathers start to form on his wife's arms.
"You promised me that you had stopped!" Apolline cried. "After that business with the Italians, you said that that was it for you. The whole reason you accepted your last promotion was because it meant you were out of the field for good."
"The Italians?" Fleur asked, confused. "There wasn't anything in the files we got about an Italian job."
"It was a joint operation that your papa nearly died in," Apolline spat, glaring at her husband. "I begged you as you recovered to realize that you weren't a young man anymore and accept that you could do just as much good behind a desk as you could on the streets, and you agreed."
"I did," Sebastian replied, kissing her cheek and running his fingers through her long, silvery hair, "and I've kept to that ever since, but there's this one case I never solved…"
"What case?" Fleur asked, and he barely resisted the urge to glare at her as he tried to calm his wife. "Papa, 'Arry is in Germany speaking with a centuries-old dark wizard right now, and he'll probably know by the time he returns anyway."
"That boy is a seriously bad influ...Fleur, tell me your boyfriend isn't meeting with Klaus Reinhardt," Sebastian begged, looking at his daughter fearfully.
"You know him?" Fleur asked.
"For the love of...that man is not to be trifled with, Fleur!" Sebastian replied. "I only learned he existed when I took this job and read through my predecessor's old files. He was connected to Gellert Grindelwald, for goodness sake!"
"He was connected to Voldemort too," Fleur replied calmly. "'Arry will be perfectly safe meeting with him, given everything."
"I'm sorry, this man was connected to two dark lords, and your boyfriend is stopping by for a chat with him?" Apolline asked. "Why?"
"He helped invent Nathresia's Bane, for one thing, but he also designed something that was used to hold Dumont and Lestrange," Fleur replied. "Harry doesn't think that he's involved in your curse, but he does think that he'll know who did it. Papa, if we work together, we could solve this thing in time to save your life, I know it."
"Fleur, there is a reason why I never encouraged you to follow in my footsteps," Sebastian sighed. "This line of work is necessary to keep society functioning, but it is incredibly dangerous. I've buried a lot of friends in my time, and the thought of you or your sister ever putting yourself in danger like I have throughout my career is enough to freeze the blood in my veins. I won't let you endanger yourself further, little flower; I can't."
His wand slipped into his hand, and Fleur sighed.
"Sebastian!" Apolline exclaimed.
"I won't let our daughter get herself killed on my account," Sebastian hissed, reaching out to the wards and ensuring that none of them could apparate out. "Fleur, for interfering without authorization in an official auror investigation, I hereby place you under arrest."
"You can't fight me, Papa," Fleur replied, "not in your condition."
"Stop this, both of you!" Apolline exclaimed, looking between them in horror.
"Apolline, this is for her own good," Sebastian insisted. "Help me, please."
"Don't worry, Maman," Fleur said. "I won't make you choose between us. Tenebrae nebula."
"Stupefy!" Sebastian hissed, but Fleur was already gone, having blanketed the room in darkness so neither of them would notice the summoning circle she created around herself.
Reappearing in the Rookery, she wept and sat down in the first chair she came across.
"Fleur?" Sirius asked. "What's wrong? Did your father's condition worsen?"
Fleur just shook her head and buried it in her hands. Telling him about Dumont and Lestrange had been a gamble, she'd known, but he was so stubborn in his refusal to accept her and Harry's help that she figured shocking him was the only way to possibly get through to him. It hadn't worked, of course, and she soon found herself spilling the whole story to Sirius, who listened quietly and shook his head.
"I can't really blame him," the older man said, and she glared at him. "He loves you, and he just doesn't want to see you end up fighting what is clearly a very powerful, very evil piece of work."
"I love him too," Fleur muttered, "and it's not as though I haven't faced danger in the past. I went up against a dragon less than a year ago, plus Harry killed bloody Voldemort."
"You're starting to talk like us," Sirius chuckled, and she glared at him. "You said yourself that you only told him about the two murder victims because you hoped that shocking him would get through to him. That didn't work, but did it get you anything? Did he slip up in any way?"
"He...he did," Fleur breathed. "He said that the case he was in Compiegne because of was unsolved. We only looked at the files for cases he had solved, thinking that they'd be the ones most likely to have an axe to grind with him, and I had no idea that he was still personally looking into anything."
"Well, then you got something," Sirius smiled.
"And all it cost me was a probable warrant for my arrest," Fleur sighed. "I'll need to warn the others not to try going to my family home anytime soon."
"Save his life, take down the bad guy, don't get killed in the process, and I'm sure he'll get over it," Sirius assured her.
"Yeah," Fleur muttered. "I just need to do all that."
"Hey, you lot have made remarkable progress from the sound of it for completely untrained investigators," Sirius smiled. "Goodness knows what the French aurors have been up to all this time."
"Given what Papa said, I would wager that he believed that there was likely a connection between the curse placed on him and what he'd been looking into," Fleur replied. "I wouldn't be shocked if they were already looking into it. I wish that I could get into his office and look around it, but I doubt I'd be able to get into the chateau right now."
"That's not exactly going to be possible," Sirius sighed. "You do have your copies of the files, though."
"Yes, but there are so many of them," Fleur sighed. "We've already gone through so many."
"What was your father's close rate?" Sirius asked, and she blinked at him. "The percentage of cases that he…"
"I know what it means, and you're right," Fleur cut him off, smiling slightly for the first time since she got there. "The number of unsolved cases he's connected to wouldn't be great. This might not be that bad of a setback after all."
"Good," Sirius smiled. "You'll solve this, Fleur. You have plenty of help."
"Thank you, Sirius," Fleur breathed, feeling better. "I needed this. I'm going to return to the Underworld and see what I can find."
"I do what I can," Sirius replied as he watched her disappear in a fiery circle.