Forever Family

Chapter 32

Publish Date: 1/19/19

A long and tedious week had passed since Ron and Hermione were located at the warehouse. Harry had the Aurors searching rapidly for Roberts as soon as he was back in the office. It was only when Ginny reminded him to take a break that he took his focus off the search.

Harry had invited Hermione into the Auror Office the past few days to help them gather clues and convey any useful information on things she picked up at the warehouse.

"Is there anything else, Hermione?" Harry asked her urgently. "Anything you saw or heard that might give us a specific location?"

Hermione shook her head apologetically. "I'm sorry, Harry, I've already told you everything I know."

Harry sighed. It was great that they had a country and city, but they needed a place. After all, showing up in Sydney, Australia with nothing would just hold the search up even more.

"Harry! Hermione!" Ron called them over from the other end of the room. "I've got something!"

Harry and Hermione quickly made their way over to Ron, eager to find out what he had found. As soon as they made it over, Ron pointed to a street on the map of Sydney. Before Harry or Hermione could work out the significance of the street called Chestnut Lane, Ron explained it for them.

"At the warehouse," he began slowly, "I pretended to be asleep while Roberts wrote something down on parchment. He left on the desk when he left for a moment, and came back. He took it with him then. It said '1345 Chestnut Lane'."

The trio was silent for a moment. "I forgot all about it, honestly. It wasn't until I saw the map that I remembered," Ron added hastily.

"That's something, but why would Roberts write down an address with both of us sitting right there? He knows we could have easily seen it," Hermione pondered, her brow furrowed in concentration.

"No, 'Mione, here's the thing. He didn't know we were in there. I Disillusioned us before he got in the room." Hermione looked aghast as she worked everything out. Ron grinned. "Wandless magic is taught in Auror training, remember?"

"That's brilliant, Ron!" Hermione beamed ans threw her arms around her fiance. Ron's face blazed red.

"Yeah, great job, mate," Harry smiled. "All we've got to do now is go."

Harry informed the rest of the Aurors on what he and his friends had found. They spent the rest of the day planning the trip to Australia and the confrontation of Roberts. Before long, Harry was satisfied with the plan, and they were ready to go. 

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Early the next morning, after the Portkeys were ready to go, Harry said his goodbyes to Ginny and Teddy. Ginny was upset that she didn't get to go, but she still had Quidditch, and Teddy to look after. Besides, it wasn't a long work trip, just a mission in another country,

"Bye, Gin. I love you." Harry pulled Ginny in for a final kiss then turned to Teddy. "C'mere, Ted."

Teddy ran up to Harry and jumped in his arms, not quite understanding why Harry was leaving so suddenly. "Don't worry," Harry said gently. "I won't be gone for long."

"Stay safe, Harry!"

With those final words of departure, Harry joined Ron and Hermione by the Portkey that would take them to Australia. The trio, along with the small team of Aurors accompanying them, all reached out there hands to touch the Portkey. Within seconds, they felt themselves being whisked off to Australia.

Harry was the first to regain control. He landed on his feet just before the others did. The first thing he noticed was that it was dark. Apparently, he wasn't the only one.

"It's dark," Ron observed, standing up and dusting himself off. "Must be nighttime."

"Of course it is," said Hermione, looking around. "Australia's in a different time zone."

"Right, well, we've got to get working," Harry said, cutting the conversation short. He turned to his team of Aurors. "I need all of you to split off into groups, we don't want to be to loud." Harry joined Ron and Hermione in the front of the crowd.

The Portkey had taken them right to Chestnut Lane, so they didn't have to walk very far to get to 1345. The trio notified the rest of the Aurors that they found the building. Soon, they were all standing in front of a small shack that looked like it could have once been a house but hadn't been touched in a long time.

"Alright, we've got to be quiet. We can't let him know we're here then give him a chance to run away."

Following his orders, Harry quietly led the Aurors inside. They looked around for a few moments, but Roberts was nowhere in sight.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were all looking around cautiously, their wands raised. Their heads snapped to a corner of the room when they heard a rustling.

Roberts emerged from the shadows, looking nothing like Harry had ever seen him. His hair was long and dark and grimy, and his dirty clothes hung off his thing frame. His wand was too raised.

"You," he spat at Harry. "My guards were supposed to capture you and bring you directly to me. Those incompetent fools couldn't even do that, but I see now that they didn't need to. You came right to me."

Roberts cast a spell, and a jet of red light burst out of his wand. Harry, who wasn't expecting it, quickly dodged out of the way before sending his own spell back. Soon, jets of light from spells illuminated the small shack. It was six against one, and duels like that don't typically last very long.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry disarmed Roberts when he was busy fighting off another Auror. Aurors on both sides of him put a full Body Bind on Roberts. "Let's take him back to the Ministry. The DMLE will interrogate him when we get there."

Just like that, it was all over.

Harry lingered behind a moment longer, Ron's hand resting on his shoulder and Hermione's hand clasped in his own.

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As soon as they had arrived at the Ministry, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and Kingsley took it from there. Kingsley told Harry to just get home and get some rest, and that he had done enough. Harry was to tired to protest.

He said goodbye to Ron and Hermione and made his way back home. Ginny and Teddy were a welcome sight, and he curled up on the couch with his family almost immediately. Ginny made him some tea and sat down with him.

"Hey, love. You got him?" she asked, her hands clasped around her own mug of tea. Harry nodded.

"We got him."

Harry stayed up to talk with his wife and godson a little while longer, but Ginny and Teddy could tell that he was getting tired. They bid him goodnight and Harry made his way upstairs.

He fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

A/N: Hello, I've got a few things I'd like to address in this author's note. First: thank you guys so much for getting this story to 600 reads! I really appreciate it. Second: I'm sorry for the rather infrequent updates. I'm in a musical again and I'm gonna be pretty busy with that for a while, but I'll update as much as I can. Also, I'm sorry for this mediocre chapter. I've sorta lost my motivation to write but I don't wanna just abandon this story. Thanks for reading! 💛
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