Fulfilling Obligations (Harmione)

Chapter 48: Lighter

Harry rolled the slender piece of wood between his fingers, feeling along the well-worn handle, the intricate etchings on its surface. His eyes were unfocused as he considered the powerful object in his grip, and his mind was similarly unfocused as it ricocheted his thoughts and emotions about with abandon. Distress over what the Elder Wand had wrought was exchanged for the heart-pounding anxiety of protecting his family, which compounded itself with the stress of capturing Dolohov, which then brought about the somewhat more strategic line of thinking that had inspired him to bring out the Wand in the first place. And, of course, the ever-present anger draping these musings like a dark veil.

Taking a much needed, calming breath, Harry held the Wand before him, an index finger at either end, and stared as he attempted to collect his thoughts.

If he was honest with himself, he wasn't sure how much his thoughts needed collecting. He knew what he needed to do. While some of the logistics continued to elude him for the time being, he still knew where it was all headed.

He had the Cloak.

He had the Wand.

He would soon have the Stone.

And Harry despised himself for having been brought to this point. His chosen path-collecting the Hallows-felt exactly the way it should: desperate. A truly desperate act carried out by a desperate man who had reached the end of his patience, the end of his sanity.

Despite the weeks of non-stop searching and running his Aurors ragged looking for leads, Dolohov's whereabouts had yet to appear. As he had every time before, Dolohov had well and truly vanished. This fact, along with Harry's undiminished terror that someone else would soon fall victim to his indecision, had brought Harry to depths he had not reached since the Battle of Hogwarts. Or perhaps had never reached. After all, he had not had a family then, had not had children then.

If this was the only way to bring Dolohov forward, to finish things, then so be it.

A knock on his office door pulled Harry from these thoughts.

Tucking the Elder Wand away into his Auror robes, Harry gave a curt order to enter. He relaxed a bit when he saw it was Mitch.

Although Harry could not say he was terribly pleased that Mitch knew the extent of Dolohov's intentions for the Hallows, it had been helpful to have someone in the department to speak to on the issue besides Ron. Despite his propensity for chess, strategy had never been Ron's strong suit. Although Harry was more likely to keep his objectives to himself, Mitch had been useful to bounce ideas off of, as well as someone who could hold down the fort while Harry took extended days to carry out his plans.

"Sorry to interrupt," Mitch said as he closed the door behind him.

"Nothing to interrupt," Harry replied. "Just considering a few things."

"Anything I can help with?"

"Not at the moment," Harry said. "I'm barely sure how to go about helping myself, to be honest."

"Well, I'm here when or if you need it," Mitch said. He plopped a handful of files onto Harry's desk. "And here are the reports on those goblin riots from last week."

"Good," Harry said, pushing them towards an increasingly large stack of similar files. "I'll take a look at them."

"Sure," Mitch said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his robes. He was silent for a moment before gesturing at the clock on the office wall. "You about to head out for that...'errand'?"

Harry had not told Mitch about his exact plans for the day, but would not have been surprised if he had sussed it out.

"Yeah," Harry said shortly. "I appreciate you keeping an eye on things."