Will You Ever Return to Me?

Episode III: the Boundaries of Love

Chapter 1.

February 2003, Las Vegas, Nevada

There are two kinds of post-disaster investigations.

The ones that are actually useful try to find out everything that happened and make recommendations so it doesn't happen again. The ones that aren't try to find somebody to blame, and then pretend that getting rid of that person solves the problem.

After the New Year's riots and Hund's infiltration and subsequent escape, Area 51 got subject to the latter. Colonel Hemmings was drummed out, her security clearance stripped. But without permission to tell anyone what happened or why, she would never be assigned to any but the most boring, risk-free positions in the Army bureaucracy. She would certainly never get another command. So, in late January, Hemmings had resigned from the Army altogether.

Padma had stayed with Ron and Hermione, telling the Ministry that, although she no longer worked with the U.S. Muggle government, she had another lead on Hund--which was technically true, since Hermione told her about Harry's survival and escape.

Lydia Jones was retained at Area 51, and, while having visited her wizard friends several times, couldn't tell them what she did now. Sergeant Anderson was unheard from.

So the last thing Hermione expected was to see the whole group--her, Ron, Hemmings, Anderson, Padma, and Lydia--gathered at their house on a Saturday afternoon. Well, Padma lived with them now, and Lydia had been visiting, but this was the first time since the investigators announced their decision that she had seen the others. She also had no idea how to defuse the obvious tension between Anderson and Hemmings, and the wizards...

Lydia walked around the living room and plummeted onto the sofa, flipping open her laptop. She looked at the monitor for a few seconds, typed something in, and then glanced up at them. "Hund's still out there," she said.

"Tell us something we don't know," Anderson grumbled.

"Alright. Our group was put together because the powers that be thought we would have the best chance of catching him. I happen to believe they were right in that. And if they were right then, then chances are, it's still the case. So we'll keep doing what we've been doing."

"Uhm, we were working under the auspices of the government," Hemmings pointed out.

"We had a base of operations, and access to special Portkeys. That was mostly it."

"So," Ron interjected, "we're going to go after Hund by ourselves?"

Hermione nodded. "It's back to what we've always done. I wish we could tell Harry--"

"But we can't afford to wait for him to show up," Padma said.

"No," Hemmings agreed.

"And we won't be entirely without support," Lydia continued. "Do you really think I would be able to even meet with you if you were really cut off? Fifty-One isn't that stupid."

"What do you mean?" Padma asked.

"General Chandler didn't like what the investigators did any more than any of you. So, while formally you are out, I'm allowed to maintain contact, and know what you're doing. If you need support, Chandler will give it."

"How do I fit into this?" Sergeant Anderson suddenly asked. "You--" he pointed at Ron, Padma, and Hermione--"are special--"

"Sergeant, we've been over this," Hemmings said.

"Ma'am, you're no longer in the Army, but I still am--at least, I think I am. But there have been no orders, no reassignment--"

"Sergeant, you won't like what's happening," Lydia said. "You're probably used to your documents saying something other than what actually happened by now--"

"So now I'm the butt of jokes, too. Maybe I should just spill the--"

"Hund would love to hear about this argument," Ron whispered.

Everyone turned to him. "Huh?" Hemmings asked.

"What's the point of these riots? Distrust between wizards and Muggles. Looks like they're succeeding. Even among ourselves..."

After a stunned silence, Lydia continued. "Officially, Sergeant, you'd been seriously wounded in the... events of New Year's, and are now recovering."

Anderson thought for a moment. "Just don't arrange for a fake Purple Heart. Captain Sherman--" He looked at the wizards again, who nodded. Sherman was paralyzed in the neck, with little prospect for recovery. "Could you do what Hund's done? The elephant--"

"Maybe," Hermione answered. "It would take time, and keeping it secret from Hund would be nearly impossible."
"Why?"

"We need information, and I'm willing to bet Hund is keeping an eye out at wizarding libraries at that sort of thing... so unless we can find someone we can trust to teach us, he'll know. Also, some people are unable to do it at all, and no one knows the form they'll take in advance. If we start working on this, we probably won't have time to do anything else."

"All right," Lydia said. "But we finally have a lead onto Hund. Padma had found out how the riots were organized."

Everyone was shocked into silence. "You never told--"

"I didn't want to do a halfway job. I figured out everything. And Lydia said it wouldn't be prudent to tell everyone until Chandler permitted our team to regroup--which had to wait till the investigators were off his back."

"We're waiting," Hemmings said.

"Remember the tricorn carcasses stolen from the Department of Mysteries?" Padma asked. "Tricorns have been hunted to extinction in the eighteenth century, and since then, everyone knows the basics about them, but the critical information is one of the best-kept secrets of the wizarding world--and with good reason. How Hund got his hands on it--"

"Probably the same way he managed to get in here," Lydia suggested.

"Likely," Padma agreed. "And this is another piece of evidence--circumstantial, granted--that it was Hund behind it, and not Bellatrix Lestrange--"

"We shouldn't make assumptions," Hermione countered. "The Black family--"

"This would have been very useful to You-Know-Who, if he knew about it."

Hermione shrugged. "Does it matter now? Hund's using it, right?"
"Correct. Tricorns were... telepathic animals, among other things. That determines what potions made from their parts do. The one that concerns us is called the Shepherd Potion. It has also been called 'the Imperius Curse in a bottle'."

"Is that... accurate?" Hermione asked.

"Mostly. I'd say it's more dangerous. Under Imperius, the person knows he's being controlled, even if he can't resist it. Here, you can slip someone the potion, and they have no idea that a specific signal will trigger control."

"The Imperius Curse can be resisted--" Ron said.

"So can this, by the same methods. But there's the trick--the strength of resistance depends on inherent abilities and power of the witch or wizard, just like the Imperius--but the strength of control depends on the potency of the potion. A weak wizard can potentially control a stronger one. Not to mention that you can hit someone with a double blast--potion and Imperius. There's no record of resisting that. Ever.
"That's why there are no more tricorns. They were all... turned into potions. And apparently, Hund's trying to do the same to the last ones. The use of Shepherd Potion is consistent with what those caught in the riots testified to. Unless we're really dealing with the mass use of the Imperius Curse--but I doubt it."

"There are no more tricorns, right?" Hemmings suddenly asked.

"No, there aren't."

"Are you sure?"

"If there were, we'd have heard about them in the past two hundred years. And if Hund knows about them someplace... he wouldn't need to steal the carcasses.

"So they're limited in the amount of potion they can make. Can we estimate how--"

"No," Padma said. "This potion can be made to very different potencies, which use various amounts of tricorn brains--that's the active ingredient. We don't know how may of the rioters were under it, and how many were Hund's followers--some certainly are. Maybe they're out already, and that's why this month was quiet. Maybe they can launch ten more riots like the one on New Year's."

"Or one ten times worse," Ron said.

"But they're limited?" Hemmings asked again.

"Yes. Other magical governments in Europe might have more carcasses, but we'd hear about it if they launched a raid on one of them."

"This doesn't make sense... what did the riot give them that they used up a significant portion of a completely non-renewable resource?"

No one had an answer, but Ron was suddenly looking very thoughtful. "Ron?" Hermione asked. "What's wrong?"
"Anyone has a copy of Weekly World News from last week?"

"You read that crap?" Sergeant Anderson asked.

"I have to agree," Hermione said. "Why?"

"I like it. Especially if it's really a glimpse of the wizarding world, and they're trying to come up with an explanation. And I think there was something--"

"Why didn't--"

"Until you mentioned tricorns, I didn't think there was any reason. It looked just like your run-of-the-mill WWN stuff."

Lydia fired up her laptop. "Let's see... the week of January 19^th... I don't see anything about tricorns--"

"Let me see," Ron asked, and took the computer. Hermione watched over his shoulder. There was the front page claim of an alien sighting in Tennessee, a report about carrying two babies in two separate wombs, and a story about a moose who could sing the national anthem. She scanned the rest of the paper. The absurdities people will believe...

"This isn't the paper. Not the one they actually sold," Ron said.

"Can you get the--"

"I threw it away. Sorry."

"Do you mean to say," Sergeant Anderson interrupted, "that someone replaced the paper on the website with a fake?"

"Yes," Hermione said.

"That's--"

"It's possible," Lydia said.

"Yeah, but--wouldn't it be noticed?"

"With the kind of people who read WWN?" Hermione replied. "Not likely. And whoever did was creative. It looks like the real thing. And if the original paper really had something about tricorns, who'd be interested that the story would disappear?"

"Hund," Padma said. "Lydia--"

"I'm already on it. I'm going to try to see if their site was hacked... and try to find the original issue."

"Mr. Weasley, can you remember what that article said?"

"Well... it was an interview with... what do you call an animal doctor?"

"Veterinarian," Hermione said.

"Veterinarian. He claimed he was called to a farm to help with a pregnant cow... and when it gave birth, it was... not a cow baby. And it had three horns, still soft, he says. He even took a picture with his cell phone, and the paper printed it."

"A cow give birth to a tricorn?" Padma nearly laughed. "Maybe that doctor had too much to drink."

"Well... it is the WWN," Ron granted.

"Exactly. Why are we--"

"The original issue was definitely removed," Lydia said. "Whoever did it was thorough."

"I still think--" Padma began.

"It doesn't make sense, I know," Ron defended himself. "But wouldn't you say we have too many coincidences here. The very issue--"

"Well. you're mistaken there, Mr. Weasley. Three issues were deleted and replaced. Yours, the one from the week before, and the next one."

"See?" Padma said. "It's--"

"I have the original paper," Lydia said. They all moved to look.

The article was what Ron had remembered. a veterinarian in Minnesota was giving an interview. "You know," he was quoted, "the cow's owner looked... unhappy. He told me not to tell about this. I have no idea why--he would earn more money showing that freak animal."

"Lydia, are you--"

"Let's check.. here it is. Local vet, George McClintock. Died in a car crash after the brakes on the car gave out on an icy road. This is from January 24^th--so he died in the night from 22^nd to 23^rd. Who here thinks it was an accident?"

No one raised their hand. Even Sergeant Anderson seemed to think that this put too many coincidences together.

"I think," Hemmings summed up the meeting, "that we ought to pay our 'cattle farmer' a visit."

"Agreed," Anderson said.

Lydia picked up her phone. "I'll tell Fifty-One to prepare cold-weather gear."

"We also need to tell Harry about this."

"Who's Harry?" Anderson asked.

"Our best friend. He defeated Voldemort, and then Hund faked evidence that landed him to Azkaban."

"Your British wizard prison?" Hemmings asked.

"Yeah," Ron said. "So he escaped, came to us, told us what happened, and then went off looking for Hund. We haven't heard from him since."

"And how are you going to contact him?"

"Well... we haven't been able to. But I have an idea," Hermione said. "I won't be contacting him directly."