Time Keeps on Slipping - Chapter 12

Sirius glared down at the scene before him. It was one that he had encountered too often as of late. Muggle bodies strewn about the ground in various degrees of slaughter. Red Caps were nasty creatures. This was the fourth clutch he had found since he had arrived. They were related to goblins in a sense. Blood was more important to them than gold. They would drain their victims and soak their caps until they were full.

Stunners didn't work against them. They were unusually resistant to them. Fire seemed to do the trick just fine. It also made the cleanup easy. Technically, he was an Auror through the British Ministry of Magic. In reality, he would go where he was needed. That usually meant taking care of some sort of creature infestation, or upstart wizard with delusions of becoming a dark lord.

Lately, there have been fewer dark lords and more creatures. Things like this happened, but not this often, or this violent. Every creature encountered was deadly and their victims were always muggles before he could stop them. At first, he had thought that it had been the plan of one of the more unhinged dark lord. That was until they started to get closer to muggle towns.

The Red Caps weren't creatures that liked cities. They preferred to ambush travelers or terrorize the unfortunate few that still lived isolated on various borders. The gory remains of muggle victims mingled with the cooling ashes of Red Caps were scattered across the public park on the edge of town. Thankfully, it wasn't a playground, but rather one of those that businesspeople used for lunch breaks during the day and transients used for shelter at night.

Sirius wasn't an investigator; he didn't track down clues or try to unravel schemes. He preferred to be in the thick of things. There wasn't anything waiting for him at home, so it didn't matter if he stumbled inside bleeding, beaten, stinking drunk, or a mixture of all of them. Still, it was clear something was going on. Someone was bringing these deadly creatures closer and closer to muggles. Whoever was doing this wanted to expose the muggle world to magic. Not in a friendly way either. This was the way to start the conversation with violence rather than words. At best, they wanted muggles to know about monsters. Though he couldn't figure out why they would try to accomplish.

A wave of his wand summoned a small swarm of snitch-like orbs. They zipped around the area capturing pictures at various angles. A slight smile tugged at the corner of his lips. Fred and George Weasley were truly geniuses. He wished that he could have seen how they would have worked with James and Lily. They would have come up with some amazing things.

He snapped his fingers and the orbs zipped over to him. They snuggled into one of his pockets. A quick wave of his wand cleaned the area as though it had never been covered in ash and gore. He had healed the various wounds enough to make them stop bleeding.

Sirius did a slow patrol of the area. Red Caps weren't subtle. If there were any of them left they would have attacked by now. They hated humans. They hated magical folk even more. He took a slow breath, then apparated away.

The cuts on his arm and along his torso had opened up in transit. They weren't too bad, but had started to bleed again, nonetheless.

"Sirius!" Tonks yelled.

He cocked his head to the side as his niece rushed at him. Usually, he had shown up in much worse shape before. There was no reason for her to be so upset.

"Chief?" Sirius asked as she ran closer.

"Sirius." Tonks took a deep breath. "I've been trying to reach you."

"I was on assignment." Sirius lifted his hand up to show his bleeding arm. "Red Caps."

Tonks barely gave his blood-streaked hand and torn sleeve a glance.

"It's Harry." She hissed. "He's back."

Sirius scrunched his brow. Tonks wasn't one to joke around about Harry. She knew how hard it hit him.

"Come with me." Tonks grabbed his wrist.

The popped away without warning. Sirius lurched a couple of steps as they landed. It took a moment, but he recognized the room. They were in Hermione's welcome room. The 'airlock' setup would shut tight for anyone that was not welcome that had managed to apparate through the wards. He could feel the wards accept him. Tonks didn't give him enough time to wonder why they were there. Instead, she pulled him deeper into the house.

"Harry!" Tonks called.

No one answered.

"This isn't funny, Nymphadora." Sirius snapped; he pulled his hand out of hers.

"Don't call me that." She snapped right back.

"Aunt Tonks?" Hugo called from upstairs.

"Hugo." Tonks turned back to face the young man. "Where is Harry?"

"Sirius!" Hugo called with a bright smile.

The ginger teen rushed down and wrapped the man in a hug. He pulled away when he felt the moisture.

"You're bleeding." Hugo said as he stepped back.

"Hugo." Tonks snapped a few times to get his attention. "Where is Harry?"

"He went out with Rose." Hugo drew his wand and started to stitch Sirius back together. "I think they were going to see the goblins."

Sirius stared at Hugo. His gaze shifted to Tonks.

"This isn't funny." Sirius stepped away from both of them. "Bring Teddy out here and you can all laugh."

"Teddy?" Tonks cocked an eyebrow at him. "Teddy is at his apprenticeship. Why would he be here?"

Sirius glared at her.

"Sirius." Tonks stared deep into his eyes. "Harry's back."

~§~

"I think I'm ok." Harry watched as his plate floated over to the sink.

"Are you sure?" Rose asked.

"We don't have to rush things." Roxie added.

"Yeah." He nodded. "I need to do something or I'm going to go crazy."

The two witches shared a silent look.

"You know what I mean." Harry groaned.

"Fine." Rose stood. "Let's get the goblins out of the way."

They stepped through the Floo into the Gringotts lobby. Rose and Roxie both seemed a little on edge. Harry didn't know why, but then, goblins weren't exactly friendly.

"I'll be fine." Harry gave them a small smile. "Meet you at the Quidditch Supply?"

Roxie's eyes flashed. Rose sighed at her cousin's reaction.

"And now I've lost her." Rose grumbled. "See you there, Harry."

Harry joined the queue for the main teller. He took a moment to study the people around him. No one seemed to notice him. There did seem to be more people wearing muggle style clothing. He could recognize the Pureblood, or at least those with money, from the others. They even wore some sort of muggle attire. Classic suits and fancy dress rather than jeans and T-shirts.

He was at the front of the line in a few moments.

"Name and business." The goblin didn't bother to look up.

"Harry Potter." He stated. "I need to reactivate my accounts."

The goblin slowly raised its gaze to see him. A flash of shock flashed in the goblin's eyes. They looked over to the stretch of tellers and shouted something in their native tongue. Every goblin froze. A similar shout got repeated along until it reached the far end of the lobby.

A thin line appeared in the stone. It took a moment for Harry to realize that it hadn't been a wall, but a door. One that was big enough to fill the entirety of the width. A group of goblins in armor marched out. The silver of their armor shimmered in the low light. In the center was a goblin in a full set of gold armor.

They came to a stop before him. Harry could feel the tension in the air. Everyone around him had taken a step back. Still, they knew not to draw their wands.

"Follow me." The goblin in the gold armor commanded.

Harry sighed. So much for keeping a low profile.