The Auror and the Fountain

Chapter Seven: The Fountain of What?


Harry found himself holding a new born baby girl, with wisps of red hair and eyes of bright brown. He was scared. He was very scared.
“Ginny? Ginny!” he called out, hoping she would come down the stairs, explain what was going on and make this better. Could she have been hiding a pregnancy from him, under that robe, this whole time? That wouldn’t have bothered him, it wouldn’t. So, he could deal with it if she would just come back from wherever she was hiding. “Ginny, I’m not angry. I’m not, really. Please, come back.” he called a little louder this time.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs and he held his breath as he watched for her to alight at the landing. What he saw was his two children, James and Lily, sleepy eyed and curious as to why their father was yelling.
“What’s up, Dad? Who is that?” James said as he finished his trip down the stairs and looked at the baby in his father’s arms.
“James, is your mother upstairs. Go and look, please. Lily, hold this baby, please. Carefully. She’s not like Maggie.” he said adjusting the infant in Lily’s arms as he went for his wand. James rushed up the stairs and looked in each room before he came back down the stairs and shook his head at his father’s inquiring look. Harry lifted his wand and used the now too familiar tracing spell to see where Ginny had gone. He found only the lines of her travel around the house, ending with the chair that Lily now sat in holding the baby in her arms. “Oh, No!” he said as his head began to spin.

Draco had calmed his parents and then went up to spend time with his son, assured that the escaped con would not return by the same path for some time, as he seemed not to be able to use this method more than once a day. He entered the Ravenclaw common room to find the two boys reading a current issue of Quidditch Today and giggling over the headlines. He cleared his throat and the two looked up.
“Hello, Father. Albus Severus is going to stay over. His mum said he could when she came earlier. How is grandfather?” Scorpius said, his pureblood mask in place when dealing with the man. Draco sighed as he found a chair and settled into it. He had been trying of late to ease his son’s attitude around him, not liking the way that the boy sounded too much like himself as a child. He wanted the closeness that he had seen other children have with their parents. He wanted the boy to treat him like a dad, not a warden.
“Lucius is fine, Son. What are you reading?” he asked.
“The Magpies are looking for a new chaser. Greenleaf got hit too hard and his head is messed up. We were thinking that this might actually help him play better.” Albus Potter said in a smooth and refreshingly comfortable speech.
“No, he’s hopeless.” Draco responded hoping his son would see how he could interact with others and take the cue. “Their only hope is to find someone else and try to integrate them into the group. If the new member can stand the rest of those idiots.”
“You follow quidditch, Father?” Scorpius said in a shocked voice, his inflection on the word ‘you’.
“Did you think I live and breathe work, son? Of course, I follow. Haven’t I ever told you that I played the game in school?” he asked and the boy shook his head.
“He was the seeker for Slytherin. My dad told me he was the only other player that could have beat him in the whole school.” Albus said in a voice filled with awe. Draco looked shocked now, even scandalized.
“Your father said that?” he asked.
“Yep. He said that his only goal was to keep one step ahead of you, and sometimes it was really hard. You were his rival, after all. He once told me that if you could have been friends, it would have been great to fly against you, just for fun. I think he still thinks that, cause when he gets home, he says ‘beat Malfoy again.’ like you were flying with him all the way.” Albus said and no one in the room interrupted, Draco out of shock and Scorpius in awe.
“Gee Father, that is cool. Harry Potter was a great player. All the kids think so. If they knew, they’d be real scared of our team. We gotta tell the guys when they get here.” Scorpius finally said when his friend finished his story.
“We could owl them, now.” Albus offered and the two rushed over to the desk to get parchment and quills. Draco, forgotten in their excitement, rose and left the room, his head filled with strange thoughts.


Harry sat in the waiting room, his thoughts filled with possibilities. How could this have happened and what did it have to do with the baby he had found that afternoon. No, yesterday afternoon, as it was now after midnight. He was interrupted from his inner musings when the healer in charge entered and walked directly up to him. He stood and waited for the diagnosis.
“The baby is fine, Mr. Potter. I am unable to determine its lineage, due to some blockage that I cannot determine. It is apparent that this little girl’s mother didn’t want to be found. I can arrange for her to be adopted, of course. But, as the auror that located her, you will have to sign off on any paperwork. I would be able to go to the mother, normally. What do you want to do?” the man asked.
“Um, can I take her home with me, while I decide?” he asked and the healer nodded silently. “I am afraid that . . . .it may be my child, you see. It may have been my wife that had it . .her. Or it may be hers with someone else. I have to find out for sure, before I decide anything.” Harry said knowing that his words were safe with this man, he had dealt with him before and knew him to be discreet.
“I see. Don’t take too long about it, though. You understand that the longer it takes, the more you may become attached. Then, the decision may be too hard to make, or if the mother comes back, may be taken away from you.” the man said and Harry nodded.
The baby was returned, still dressed in the hand-me-down from Maggie’s wardrobe and placed in Harry’s arms. The nurse smiled warmly as he cuddled the little thing close. “She seems to be very healthy. I think you will be very happy with her.” the little woman said and Harry looked up in surprise at her words.
He took her and returned to the floo, heading for home as quickly as possible to update his family, as well as Ron and Hermione, who had come over at his call, to watch the children. They had brought Rose, Hugo and David, their youngest, and the children were now all asleep in the beds upstairs.
“So, where did it come from and where is my sister?” Ron asked as he stepped out of the fireplace and cleaned himself off with a charm.
“I need to have that cleaned, desperately.” Harry said, indicating the filthy floo. “Ron, they can’t determine the parenthood. The child is warded against it somehow. I don’t know for sure whose baby it is or where Ginny is. I have my suspicions, but you’ll just have to wait. Hermione, thanks for coming so quickly. The children can stay over, I’ll send them home in the morning if that helps. You and Ron can get some rest, sleep in. I think I may be busy tomorrow, but I can take the children with. I am going to Hogwarts to pick up Albus, and see someone who can help me with this, I hope.”
“Okay, send the kids through when they get up, if James or Lily want to come with, that’s fine. I’ll be home all day tomorrow.” Hermione said with a wary look. “Harry, can’t you tell us anything?” she added.
“No. Nothing solid. I will when I know. Right now, I’m gonna put this little girl down for the night, or however long she will sleep. I have to clean up a little, then get some sleep myself.” Harry said, his words distracting him from his worries. “Good-night.” he added in dismissal as he turned to the divan and transfigured it into a cradle. “I think we will call you Sissy, until we can decide on something more permanent.” he was saying as he waved his wand and blankets flew across the room from the linen closet. Hermione pushed Ron towards the floo and shushed him as he began to protest.
“Good-night, Harry,” She said as they entered and tossed the powder down. “Granger Estate.” Hermione said, calling out the name Ron had given their house when he had purchased it for her, with the bonus he got for he and Harry bringing in the Carrows. They disappeared unnoticed by Harry who was summoning a bottle from the bag that had been given him by the nurse at St. Mungo’s. He held it for the baby, who drank it down and began to drowse. He put her to bed and tucked her in gently.
After putting the empty bottle into the sink, he gathered up the rest of the dishes from the table and added them to the pile, activating the automatic dishwasher, a magic brush that would clean the dishes and then levitate them to their proper storage spots, and turned to the other items scattered around the kitchen. He tossed his travel clothes into the hamper and sent his kit to the shelf of his home office, holding the canteen in his hands as he let the thoughts from earlier fill his head. He looked at it without seeing it, and considered how his wife had possibly come to harm, or worse. The canteen looked odd and his distracted mind was suddenly drawn to it, seeing it more clearly now. It looked to be brand new, not the worn out old thing he had had for nearly twenty years.
He opened it and looked in it at the clear clean water that seemed to draw him to it, calling out its delicious refreshment to him as if by magic. . . .magic? The water was magic? Could it have been responsible for . . .? His thoughts came around and focused on everything that had happened since he had found the hidden fountain and things were beginning to make sense, well in the weird way that magic things can make sense of nonsense.
He closed the canteen, putting up on a high shelf where no child might find it and accidently open it, then he hurried to the bathroom, opened the door and stood in front of the mirror, gawking at what he saw.
His face was clear, unblemished and refreshed. Not the face of a man in his early forties, but the face of a much younger man, unworn by the trials of life and the work he had done. His hair was thick, bushy and as unruly as it had been in his late twenties, at the peak of his life. He looked to be no more than thirty-two, and a healthy thirty-two. And all of this from just washing his face and wetting his hair in that fountain. Imagine if he had drank from it? . . . Suddenly, life was clear and he turned to the other room where a sleeping infant was the center of his universe.
He hurried to the baby, looked down at it and dropped to his knees beside her. “Ginny? Is that you?” he whispered as he touched the tiny cheek. “Oh, baby. I’ll figure this out, I promise. I’m sorry for everything, for life and all the terrible things that have come between us. I’ll bring you back and make it all better, I’ll make it up to you.” he said as he leaned against the bed and watched the baby sleep.
Harry fell asleep thinking about the baby he had found near the fountains base and a chuckle escaped as he realized he was finished hunting for Stan Shunpike, at last. “Draco will be pleased, if he can stop worrying about the man dropping in on his father, now.” he mumbled as sleep overtook him in the cramped position where he sat.

Yes, that what the fountain is, but how and where and why and who??? Now, Harry can try to solve the mystery, fix everything, make life the happy time it was, or will he? And still, there looms Draco in the distance. What will come of the association between these two? Well, I didn't put it here on accident, ya know.