InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Light in Dark Places ❯ Chapter 1: Happenstance ( Chapter 2 )

Light in Dark Places

By: Eilan-san

 

ooo

 

Chapter 1: Happenstance

 

Home is behind, the world ahead,

And there are many paths to tread.

Through shadow, to the edge of night

Until the stars are all alight.

Mist and shadow, cloud and shade,

All shall fade, all shall fade.

 

--Tolkien, “The Lord of the Rings”

 

ooo

 

A few weeks later…

 

Harry had been dozing in his office in the Auror Division of the Ministry of Magic, when he heard a knock on his office door. He quickly shook his head to clear his thoughts, and sat back in his chair, motioning for the other party to enter.

 

A mop of flaming red hair poked itself inside the doorframe and Harry smiled. He was surprised to see him at work at all today, especially after Hermione's little announcement. He'd been in the middle of a nap when the phone rang, and on the other end of the line was an extremely excited Ron yelling at the top of his lungs, “I'm gonna be a Daddy!”

 

“Harry, mate, have you finished the paperwork from that raid yesterday?” Ron asked.

 

Harry nodded.

 

“Brilliant, we have a new case for you to investigate.” Ron handed him a file folder and Harry began to flip through it, skimming the pages.

 

“This is all we have?” Harry looked back up at Ron, incredulously.

 

Ron grimaced. “Some poor bloke was found wandering around Glastonbury last week mumbling, `light in dark places, light in dark places,' over and over again. He'd been completely obliviated.”

 

“According to the report it was a muggle?” Harry asked.

 

“Yeah… he was a scholar of some sort in mythology. I guess Oxford will need an explanation as to his whereabouts. I'll put Hermione on it.”

 

“You're actually going to let her work? In her condition?” Harry grinned.

 

“It wasn't really my choice, Harry, you know how Hermione can be,” Ron frowned, clearly unhappy about his wife working.

 

Harry laughed, “Yes I do, and I know that I would never want to get in her way, especially when she's pregnant.”

 

“Oh, you have no idea,” Ron groaned and slumped into a chair opposite Harry. “She's been throwing up every morning for the past week and the Mediwitch told me it'll probably get worse. However, she is allowed to keep working, so she'll continue as liaison from the Ministry of Magic to the rest of the government, as much as I'd rather she didn't.”

 

“Well, you are the Base Operator for the Auror Division, so I suppose you can pick and choose which assignments she takes on,” Harry said, and an impish smile bloomed on his face. “Although, if she catches wind of this…”

 

Ron's jaw dropped, “You wouldn't!”

 

Harry chuckled, “No, I know you'd come after me in my sleep.”

 

“You're damn right I would,” Ron grinned back at him. He stood, “We still on for dinner tonight?”

 

“Wouldn't miss it for the world,” Harry replied.

 

“I don't know, Harry, Hermione is cooking pot roast and her pot roast is always precarious,” Ron said seriously. “But we'll see you at 7:30.”

 

Harry nodded and Ron clapped him on the back before leaving his office to go back to work. He was a top Auror for the Ministry and although his reputation as a “Defeater of Evil” still remained, he actually enjoyed the more Detective-type qualities of his job, and this particular case was going to prove especially challenging due to the severe lack of information.

 

He paged through the case file again, reading more carefully this time. At nine o'clock on Tuesday morning, a tourist found a middle-aged man stumbling around the Glastonbury Abbey. He was mumbling to himself. He was taken to the nearest hospital and identified as one Stephen Yamato, a professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford. He was held for observation until Thursday, when he was released from the hospital. He has no memory of how he got to Glastonbury at all, and would occasionally fall into a trance, shouting, “It's a light in the dark places!” and “I don't have it! I don't know what you're talking about!”

 

Harry tapped the folder thoughtfully. `Why'd they hand this over to the Aurors?' he wondered. Normally this kind of thing would have fallen under Muggle Law Enforcement, as it dealt with a muggle and there were no overt signs of magic. He flipped over to the next page and noticed a small handwritten note from a wizard friend of his in the police precinct who'd handled the case - “Yamato practically wreaked of dark magic - we didn't know whom else to send this to.”

 

`Odd,' he thought. A sense of uneasiness settled in his stomach. `There have been no real attempts at harming muggles since the war.' There hadn't really been any attempts by any dark wizards to do much of anything since the war ended ten years ago. There were pockets here and there, but most were too afraid to come out and directly attack anyone before.

 

And why this obscure professor from Oxford? He turned back to the first page of the report; “It's a light in dark places!” he'd screamed in the hospital.

`What's a light in dark places?' Harry frowned. `A flashlight? No, it couldn't possibly be that simple.' According to the note that came with the case file, the man had clearly been touched by dark magic - but why?

 

`Maybe it had something to do with this light thing,' Harry thought. He sighed, and glanced at the clock - it was nearing 7:00 so he decided to run home for a quick shower before heading over to the Weasley's.

 

He quickly gathered his things and apparated home, managed to shower and remember the bottle of wine he was supposed to bring to dinner before 7:30. He glanced in the mirror frowned at his messy black hair - he'd long ago given up hope that it would ever do anything he wanted it to - and apparated again to the front stoop of the Weasley flat.

 

Through the door he heard muffled voices that seemed to be arguing. Harry chuckled to himself - some things just never get old. He was about to ring the doorbell, when he realized the door was already slightly ajar.

 

He opened the door and was greeted by the sight of Hermione, standing in her full glory, bushy brown hair flying, cinnamon eyes flashing with disgust at her husband.

 

Harry quickly looked at Ron who stricken, mouthed, “Help me!” Harry couldn't help but laugh, green eyes dancing with merriment.

 

“Should I come back another time, then?” he asked.

 

Hermione's head snapped up to look at Harry and she immediately softened and went to hug him. Harry hugged her back but managed to look up at Ron over Hermione's shoulder in time to catch him whisper, “Thanks, mate, I think she might have actually killed me that time.”

 

He grinned as Hermione pulled away to give him a friendly kiss on the cheek.

 

“It's been ages since I saw you last!” she exclaimed.

 

“It hasn't been that long, Hermione. I saw you two weeks ago for lunch, remember?”

 

“I know, but I feel like I hardly ever get to see you anymore because of work,” she said.

 

“How is being a diplomat?” Harry asked as he sat down at the kitchen table.

 

“Bloody awful,” she replied sullenly as she sat down across from him, sipping her glass of wine. “I actually have to be nice to Malfoy. The stupid git works in my office now.”

 

Harry and Ron grimaced. Thankfully their work dealt only with catching gits like Malfoy while Hermione - ever the verbally adept one - played nice with them until they did something stupid and got themselves caught.

Hermione regaled Harry and Ron with tales of the office for the rest of dinner while Harry and Ron would take turns telling Hermione of all the silly things the new recruits would do and how on occasion they would fall all over themselves when they met Harry for the first time.

 

The sounds of laughter filled the flat for hours, as the three friends sat reminiscing about school and their jobs. Ron eventually broke out the sonograms (Hermione had forced him to take her to a muggle doctor so they could have the pictures) and proceeded to show them off to Harry while Hermione just sighed, looking exasperated, but Harry knew she secretly thrilled.

 

Eventually they all settled in the living room with their coffees, and the talk quickly turned to current events and what was going on with their former classmates.

 

“I saw Ginny the other day, she showed off the ring Neville brought her…” Hermione started.

 

“What!?” Ron cried. “You meant to tell me that my little sister is engaged and she hasn't even bothered to tell her older brother?”

 

Hermione rolled her eyes, and looked to Harry briefly before she noticed he was looking a bit uncomfortable. Her eyes widened as she realized, “Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry.”

 

He sighed. “It was over a long time ago, Hermione. I was too wrapped up in work and she was unhappy. We parted friends.”

 

Hermione bit her bottom lip, but nodded and Ron gave him a half-hearted smile. “You'll find somebody, mate, I'm sure of it.”

 

Harry shrugged and was suddenly excruciatingly jealous of his friends. They had stayed friends even through Ron and Hermione's tumultuous relationship all through sixth and seventh year, and their friendship had never wavered. Harry had been Ron's best man at their wedding, and Ron had already informed him that if they ever had children, Harry would be their godfather.

 

The last woman he had dated was Ginny, lasting only a few months and it had ended over two years ago. Ginny, he had to admit, had been his last hope. He thought she would have been able to understand him, but in the end, she had her own demons to fight and had left him like all the others.

 

He watched Ron and Hermione as she cuddled up to him on the couch and her husband unconsciously put an arm around her and silently prayed that maybe he would be able to find that one day.

 

`Fat chance,' he thought. `It's part of the curse of being the Boy-Who-Lived-Twice.' Harry frowned, but was broken out of his reverie by Hermione waving a hand in his face and saying, “Earth to Harry…”

 

He blinked and looked up at her with a lopsided grin. “I'm sorry. Must have spaced out for a second. What were we talking about again?”

 

“I was telling you guys about the rumors flying around the Ministry office the past few weeks about some of the leftover Death Eaters, since you know, you guys are Aurors and everything,” Hermione sniffed primly, somewhat annoyed that Harry hadn't been listening, but continued with her story anyway. “Word is that there's some special device or object or something with extremely powerful magical properties that the few remaining Death Eaters are drooling over.”

 

Harry knit his brows together. “What kind of magical object?” he asked.

 

“Apparently all it seems to do is magnify the user's power - up to 100 fold - but no one has ever heard of it before or knows where it comes from. It's supposed to be legendary, but I've certainly never heard of it,” Hermione said.

 

“And if our Hermione hasn't heard of it, then it certainly is obscure,” Ron quipped, smiling at his wife.

 

Hermione smacked him lightly on the arm before giving him an affectionate peck on the cheek. “It might be something you want to check out, Harry. If this thing is real, it could really cause some trouble for you guys.”

 

Harry nodded. Anything that could help the Death Eaters was bad, but increasing power up to 100 fold was insane and shouldn't be in anyone's hands, much less Death Eaters.

 

Hermione tapped her chin. “I wonder…” she began, “If my classes can help?”

 

Harry looked at her, confusion written all over his face. “Hermione, we stopped taking classes when we graduated ten years ago.”

 

Hermione looked like she was about to give an irritated reply, but Ron beat her to it.

 

“She is taking classes on mythology at the University of London to `see magic from a muggle perspective.' Something about improving relations with the Muggle branches of the Ministry,” he said, trying to suppress a grin and failing miserably.

 

Hermione scowled as Harry chuckled. “It's not funny!” she said, annoyed. “I'm taking a wonderful class on Japanese Folklore and Legends with a brilliant professor. In fact, I have the highest marks in the class and the Professor is quite fond of me,” she informed them smugly.

 

Ron growled a bit, “I don't need to go have a talking to with this professor do I?”

 

Now it was Hermione's turn to laugh. “Unless you have a problem with me going out to coffee with her to discuss my papers, then no, you daft git,” she giggled.

 

Ron flushed immediately. He quickly kissed the top of her head and muttered an apology and Hermione hugged him to assure him that he'd been forgiven.

 

“In any case,” she continued, “This whole mess with the Death Eaters sounds like something out of the legends we've been reading in class - maybe you should stop by and meet the Professor, Harry. Maybe she could at least point you in the right direction.”

 

Harry turned to Ron, “Well, you're the Base Operator, Ron. Do I have leave to escort your wife to class someday this week?”

 

Ron pondered this for a moment. “That other case I gave you this afternoon isn't going anywhere?” he asked.

 

“No, unfortunately not. There's just not a whole lot of information to go off of until I can get up to Oxford and actually interview the guy, but from the report it was pretty clear that he had no idea how he ended up where he was,” Harry replied, sinking back into the overstuffed armchair.

 

“I don't see why not. Just take an extra long lunch.”

 

Harry looked back over at Hermione who was yawning sleepily. “When is your next class?”

 

“Tomorrow afternoon at 2:00. How about we meet at that cute Soup and Salad place just outside the main quad for lunch beforehand?” She thought for a minute. “You might want to bring pen and paper and just tell her you're a grad student or are a visiting relative of mine or something. She wouldn't understand why the Ministry is interested in a Japanese legend.”

 

Harry concurred and yawned himself. “I should get going,” he said as he stood up to leave. “Thank you both so much for dinner. We should definitely start doing this more often.”

 

Hermione smiled and hugged him warmly. “Definitely,” she said. “I'll see you tomorrow then, for lunch?”

 

He smiled and nodded.

 

“See you at work tomorrow, Harry,” Ron said and waved goodbye as Harry stepped out the door and into the cool night.

 

Thoughts of Death Eaters with abnormally strong powers and the strange incident with the Oxford Professor haunted his thoughts the rest of the walk home. Another sense of uneasiness settled around him again like it had earlier that afternoon in the office. Something strange was happening, and he was determined to figure out what it was.