The True Halv Blood Prince

03/11/2021

The ride from Potter's relatives to Percy's hotel in London had been a quiet one. The kid had been distracted, and hadn't seemed all that keen on conversation so Percy just let him sit and think quietly to himself. After all, Percy had his own thoughts that he was trying to process. The longer he was around the kid, the more he was beginning to believe him. If for no other reason than people were trying to shut him up. Your enemies didn't try to silence you if you weren't saying something they didn't want to hear. And that was certainly what the Ministry had tried to do tonight; silence Potter.

That was a can of worms in and of itself though. If the ministry was trying to silence the kid, then did they believe him? Did someone high up in the British ministry know that Potter was telling the truth and was attempting to take him before it was too late? Or was it simple fear? He knew what Potter's accusations meant to the country, how the man Potter claimed was alive had ravaged the landscape, tore whole families apart, and terrorized and entire continent for nearly a decade. Percy could understand why the people in power wouldn't want Potter saying anything.

That didn't make it right.

There were simply too many questions and Percy didn't have any answers. What he knew for certain though, was regardless of whether or not this Lord Whatever was actually alive or not, Percy would be sticking around. Call it a hero complex. Call it a justifiable distaste for established authority. Call it whatever the hell you wanted; at the end of the day someone had tried to kill a fourteen-year-old in one of the most brutal and horrific ways imaginable. Percy was not about to sit back and simply let something like that happen while he could do something about it. He was going to stay in England long enough to see the kid got some justice for the wrongs committed against him. He knew what it was like to never have a guy in your corner, to have the literal weight of the world rest solely on your shoulders with no one next to you to ease the burden. He'd been there and he wasn't going to let another kid go through it alone if he could help it.

He made a mental note to give Sarah a call.

There was more though. It was little more than a feeling in his gut. That familiar tightening, like when the teacher comes around to collect that assignment that you could have sworn wasn't due for another week. There was something about Harry Potter that hit Percy in an all too familiar way. Like with his accusation about the bad guy coming back to life, there were too many telltale signs that Potter was more than just some kid with some rotten luck. Percy needed to give some friends a call, he still had some connections with his old world, and some of them kept appraised of the greater magical world.

It took about forty-five minutes to get from Surrey to Percy's hotel in downtown London. He was in the non-magical part of the city, far away from any magicals. The best place to hide from a wizard, in his experience, was to simply live amongst the mortals. All in all, not that complex of a concept, yet most of the magicals he'd dealt with had a difficult time grasping it.

"It's a bit…empty." Potter observed as they entered the suite "But it's a nice enough view I suppose." The room was on the seventh floor of a high rise overlooking the Thames. It was normally a very costly room to rent, a number high enough that, after looking at the listings made Percy's skin crawl, but the ICW was always willing to shell out the cash for some of its more…discrete work.

"Yeah sorry about that." Percy said as he laid Potter's trunk down next to the large couch in the living room. It was one of only five articles of furniture in the entire suite, the other being a table with two chairs, and a small a bed in the bedroom down the hall.

"Truth be told I wasn't even planning on staying here. My plan was to interview you at your relatives. But since they were, you know, assholes…" Percy let the statement just hang for a minute as Potter stood there rather awkwardly. It was silent for a moment, then Percy cleared his throat and broke the uncomfortable silence again, "Anyways. Might as well get down to business here, right? Why don't you have a seat at the table, I'm going to gather a few things and then we can all of this crap over and done with, sound good?"

Potter nodded, a little too eagerly in Percy's opinion but then again, it was understandable. If Percy had gone months of being called a liar and a fake among other meaner things, he would be excited for a chance to prove himself as well. It was another tick in a growing list of reasons why he was sure he would be having an extended stay in jolly ol' England.

Percy left the room as Potter took a seat at the table. He had deposited his carrying bag in the bedroom after they had come in the hotel. Policy was that interview suspects weren't even allowed to see the serums and equipment until after the interview had been conducted. It was all a little annoying but he could certainly understand the reasoning behind it all. Reaching into the bag, he reached out inside and willed his potions sack into his hand. The bag was standard issue to all field operatives in the department, and came with an impressive array of runes and charms to make it the greatest all-purpose bag on the planet. The runic arrays on its side allowed the user, even if the user couldn't use magic, to shrink or expand the bag as the user saw fit. The bag was also coded to his blood so only he could get in and out of it. The inside had been charmed to be what amounted to a small pocket dimension, where he stored most of his non-combat related equipment as well as all of his forensics equipment. While he had a suitcase in his car that was charmed on the inside to be an office and laboratory, this small backpack had all of the necessary equipment to conduct his interview with Potter.

He pulled two vials out of the potions sack in his hand. The first, was a calming draught. He would administer it first to Potter to relax him, which would make him that much more receptive to the powers of the second potion Percy had; veritaserum. This was the single most important tool in wizarding law enforcement. When consumed, the user was magically compelled to only speak the truth and admit honestly to any question posed to them. While there had been plenty of debate over the years in regard to the legality as well as the morality of forcing people to admit to their faults, the legal system had come up with a fair methodology. Veritaserum could be administered only by consent of the accused party. Failure to gain this consent meant that any admissions made while under the potion would be inadmissible in a court of law, at least that was how it worked stateside. Percy wasn't too sure how the law worked over here and to be honest, he didn't really care. American supernatural law mirrored the ICW and so that was the procedure that he was going to follow and the laws he would adhere to.

Slipping the potions into his pocket, he gathered the next items on his list. A large black digital camera, and a tripod. Finally, he gathered a pen, and a pad of paper and returned to the main room of the small apartment, where Potter was sitting patiently at the table.

"Is that a camera?" he asked incredulously, as he watched Percy set the tripod up so that the camera would be facing Potter directly, over Percy's right shoulder.

"Yup" He responded easily,

Harry was silent for a second and then asked, "Why do you have a camera?" Percy looked at Potter, and his face contorted into a look of confusion.

"Well generally cameras are pretty useful for, you know, recording things. So, I think it should be kinda obvious ya know?" He thought it was pretty obvious but Potter clearly didn't understand so Percy explained. "Well I don't know what they do here, but back home we have to have a recording of all interviews to make sure that everything was done correctly. It's to protect not only the people being interviewed but the ones doing the interviewing as well. You know, in case someone snaps and tries to kill someone, there's a record of it. There's also memories too but those are usually a last resort." He explained. Potter still looked confused.

"But I thought that magic made it so that we couldn't use technology. At least, that's how my friend explained it. And she's something of a genius." Percy couldn't help the snort that came to him.

"Dude, how do you think your radio works? People figured out how to make magic work with tech like thirty years ago or something. I'm not sure, my history isn't that great but I know it's been a while. Don't you guys have TV or anything over here?" He asked,

Potter shrugged, "My friend Ron's family has an old wireless that they listen to." Percy had no idea what a wireless was, but he pretended to understand.

"Well how did you think that worked?"

"Magic" he said simply. Percy rolled his eyes, but smiled. Potter had some spunk to him and Percy could always respect that.

"Normally, we'd have to get your guardians signature of approval for what we're about to do, but luckily for you, we found a bit of a loophole in wizarding law." At his look, Percy explained, "Well technically, because there was never an investigation launched into your name coming out of the Goblet of Fire last October, the British government unintentionally recognized your emancipation. Legally speaking, in the eyes of the law and within the realms of what we're trying to do here, you're a legal adult."

His mouth dropped open in shock a little, clearly, he hadn't considered this possibility before and Percy could practically see him vibrate with excitement as he asked, "So does this mean I could do magic outside of school?" Percy shrugged. To be honest, he didn't see any problem, but Potter's government on the other hand, not to mention his teachers among others would probably have other things to say in that regard.

Percy told him as much but when he frowned Percy added, "But, this should help you out of your little legal situation with the dementors. As far as anyone will be able to tell, you didn't actually perform any underage magic because the Ministry had already legitimized your emancipation. They can't un-claim what's already happened, not here anyway so that clears up one problem. They'll probably try and charge you with performing magic in front of a nomaj but since your cousin has known about magic for at least a while I'm guessing, there will be nothing on that front either."

Potter was silent for a moment, just looking down at his hands on the table and not saying anything. Then, after about minute, he asked, "Why are you telling me all of this? Why help me at all? You could just get this interview over with and leave. It's clear that you don't want to be here. You said so yourself, so why help me?"

"I don't do what I do for a living because it pays well." Percy said dryly. "Because it doesn't. The pay is pretty shit actually. I live in New York and can barely afford an apartment. But that's beside the point. I do what I do because I genuinely believe in helping people Potter. I told you before, I would be bad at my job if I left you someplace where you were very clearly unsafe. I've always believed that those with the power and ability to act; to bring about powerful and positive change in the world, should." He finished with the camera and was looking at the kid squarely now, "I have the power to do great things Potter, which means that it's my responsibility to use that power for good. That's why I'm helping you, because it's the right thing to do. Because helping people who need helping is what a good human being does. That's the way I was raised and that's what I believe."

Potter was silent again but nodded slowly. When he looked up though, the desperation and fear that had been there previously had been replaced. His shoulders had relaxed, and the tension in his face had ceased slightly. It was clear that Percy's words, had had their intended impact.

"Right, anyways, you ready to get started then?" Percy asked, Harry nodded, and gulped slightly. Percy tried to give him his most relaxing smile, "It's completely painless. Easiest thing you'll do all year in fact. Here," Percy put down the calming draught in front of him. "Drink this first, it'll steady your nerves a little." As Harry hesitantly nodded and drank the vial, Percy switched on the camera and said, "This is Special Agent Perseus Jackson, the date is July 8th, 2015. This is an interview with Harry James Potter, age 14. Mr. Potter is an emancipated adult in the eyes of the British Ministry of Magic. Mr. Potter, do you consent to this interview, yes or no?"

"Erm yes?"

"Do you consent to ingesting Veritaserum for the purpose of this interview? Knowing that the content of this interview will only be witnessed by myself and officials of the Department of International Magical Investigations of the International Confederation of Wizards?"

"I guess so…"

"Please state your answer in the form of yes or no, Mr. Potter"

"Yes…I consent to taking the potion."

"I will now administer the potion." Percy raised the vial up in front of the camera and positioned the label so that the information on the vial would be clearly visible to the recording. Then he turned the vial again so that the clear looking liquid was visible in the vial. He did this as another measure of ensuring to the council the authenticity of the recording and his own work. He then pulled the stopper off the top of the vial and motioned for Potter to open his mouth. Percy administered three drops on the tip of his tongue, then walked back to the camera and zoomed the focus in on Potter's face, specifically his now rather unfocused eyes.

"What is your full name?"

"Harry James Potter"

"When were you born?"

"July 31st, 2000"

"Where is your home"

"Hogwarts" Percy paused for a moment, and just stared at Harry. It wasn't the answer He had been expecting, but then again, he supposed that it wasn't all too surprising given the state of his non-magical family.

"What is the name of the girl you have a crush on?"

"Cho Chang." The answer was immediate, and so was the shocked look on his face. The boy reddened immensely and Percy couldn't help the smirk from his face or keep the chuckle out of his voice.

"Let it be noted that the Potion is effective and working as it should" He ignored Potter's look of outrage and continued. "Mr. Potter, what happened on the night of June 5, 2015." He wished he could say that Potter didn't tell him anything. He wished he could say that Potter told him that everything that happened that night had been a mistake, that a boy had died as a tragic accident while participating in a deadly tournament. That Potter himself, was merely lying to maintain his own fame and publicity. Call it callous and shallow but it would have been a better and safer alternative to the painful truth of what Potter actually told Percy.

Instead, what came out of his mouth, went against all wishes for a peaceful solution to this problem. He told Percy, in very vivid detail, how he and the boy Cedric Diggory had reached the Tri-Wizard Cup at the same time. How they agreed to take it together, as a symbolic victory for their school. He told Percy how the boy had been viciously cut down not a minute later and how Harry had been forced to take part in a dark ritual that restored the body to the Dark Lord calling himself Voldemort. He went on to tell Percy about how the graveyard they'd been in had become swarmed with the Dark Lord's followers. Percy asked him for whatever names he could remember. In all, he recited nearly twenty names. That was one of the more fascinating aspects of the truth potion. It activated parts of your brain and memory that you would normally not have access to. While consciously, Potter could not have told Percy the names of more than two or maybe three of the men and woman in the graveyard that night. His subconscious mind was able to recall much more, putting names to faces that he had only associated with in passing alone.

As all of this was being recited, Percy was quickly writing down all he could on his notepad. He wrote the details of the ritual; it would hopefully provide glimpses into the kind of strength the new body possessed. He wrote down the names of the Death Eaters, the followers of the Dark Lord. He even wrote down the name of the graveyard they were in. He would need to pay it a visit in the not-too-distant future.

It took two hours, as well as two additional doses of the truth serum to get all of the information that Percy needed. He stretched his arms over the top of his head, enjoying the many small pops and cracks as he did so. Potter followed suit, albeit without the stretching. Percy looked the boy square in the eye as he stood.

"I'll be honest Potter. I'm not exactly thrilled about this."

"Yeah, because this has been a right laugh for me."

He chuckled, he couldn't help himself, "You're right, you're right sorry bud." Then he got serious, "Listen, I have to go report this, all of this. Some serious shit is likely to come down and I honestly don't know what the play is going to be. I just want to be the first to say though, that I'm sorry for doubting you. I'm sorry that the world has been doubting, but more than all of that, I'm sorry that any of this has to be happening in the first place."

Potter's eyes lost some of their edge, and his shoulders slumped as the fourteen-year-old seemingly aged a decade in front of him. It was something Percy knew all too well,

"It's ok." Potter said softly, "For what it's worth, I appreciate it. It's just nice to finally be taken seriously by somebody for a change. This has so far been one of the worst summers of my life. Between not hearing anything at all about what's going with Voldemort, and then the dementors…" he paused as he sighed in frustration and ran a hand through his hair, "I guess it's just nice to know that someone is actually doing something as opposed to…"

"Sitting on their asses with their thumbs in their mouth?" He supplied.

Potter smirked, "Not quite what I was looking for but it'll work I suppose. Really though, thank you, you've done more for me in the last six hours than my friends have done all summer." He was frowning now, and Percy could tell that he was upset. But hell, he didn't know his friends, he didn't even know their names. So he just opted to put, what he hoped, was a reassuring hand on Potter's shoulder.

"Look, I don't know them or what they have or have not done. But whatever is going on, I can tell you that it likely hasn't been that way by design." Potter continued to stare down at his shoes in silence. Not being entirely too sure what to say, Percy looked down at his watch and groaned, it was already ten o'clock. This was going to be a very long night. "Alright, I have to get going now. It's going to be a long night." He reached over by the couch and tossed Harry the remote to the TV, "And I don't think I'm going to get back until tomorrow at some point. Do me a favor and don't go anywhere. Watch TV, order room service, jack off." Harry spluttered at that one "I don't really care, just enjoy yourself and relax a bit."

"Do you mind if I do my homework?" he asked, looking somewhat hopeful. That threw Percy off, which was happening with an obnoxious frequency lately.

"Homework? Does your school seriously give you summer work to do?" He just nodded his head and looked at Percy like he was slightly crazed. Percy shuddered. "That's not right bro." Harry seemed to enjoy the response as his laughter followed Percy out the door.

BREAK

The Pizzeria was empty when he walked in. It was something of a strange sensation to him. Back home, Pizza shops were open late and were normally busy late. Maybe the Brits just didn't like their pies? If that was the case then he really didn't think he'd like to be here any longer than he absolutely had to. He approached the front desk, no one was sitting there so he called out into the back of the shop. About two minutes later, a bored looking man in his early twenties sauntered around to look at him. And in an annoyingly familiar voice said,

"Sorry mate, we're closed for the evening." Percy felt his eye twitch as he recognized the asshole from the phone call earlier that night.

"Just shut up and grab Freeman. I'm Agent Jackson, I called earlier." Now it was the assholes turn to develop a twitch. His eyes darted around the empty restaurant and briefly scanned the street outside before he moved. In the blink of an eye he had grabbed the front of Percy's shirt and he felt a wand poke into his neck.

"Fucking rookies…" he growled, the trace of the British accent he had seconds ago having dissolved completely, "Why the hell would you say that shit out in the open? You know who might be listening? You want to just paint a neon ass sign over the door telling people who we are and what we're doing here? By magic you're a special brand of stupid aren't you."

It didn't take much to flip Percy's switch, and he was quickly annoyed, "Take your wand off my neck and let go of me or I'm going to hurt you." He said, his voice was low and dangerous. He could tell it had an effect on the man as he started to sweat a little and his pupils dilated somewhat, a base reaction to someone much stronger than him. Natural instincts were beginning to turn on telling him that Percy was not your average run of the mill agent and he likely couldn't bully Percy around. Before either of the men could say anything though, they were forcefully blown apart from each other. Percy staggered and fell backwards, luckily falling right into a booth right behind him. Asshole wasn't so lucky, as he was thrown into the wall behind the counter and landed on his ass. Before either of the men could react to what happened a familiar voice shouted. "Jackson, my office. Now!" Percy scrambled to his feet and bustled behind the counter