Author's Note: Thanks to all the people at DLP and FFA that help make this story

better than it would be with just me alone. 

Chapter Five

Regrets?

After checking in on Manspark's continued improving health Harry suggested a late dinner taking into consideration it was almost eleven o'clock in London. Harry wiped away a dollop of ketchup from the corner of his mouth after taking the last bite of his Double Quarter Pounder with cheese. He slurped noisily at the remnants of the vanilla milkshake and leaned back with a truly satisfied look on his face.

"Nothing like a pint of grease to make you feel like living," said Harry as his eyes hooded sleepily.

Padma shook her head and poked at her salad. "You're going to die of a heart attack by the time you're forty if you keep eating like that."

"Bah," he replied in distain. "Grease – because my heart can take it!" he proclaimed.

He jumped up. "I'm going for apple pie, you want?"

She shook her head and Harry was off to the counter.

"Welcome to McDonald's. May I take your order?" the cashier asked with fake enthusiasm.

"Two hot apple pies please."

She punched the appropriate buttons. "Would you like fries with that?"

He returned a raised eyebrow and the cashier realized what she said. Instead of apologizing she turned around and pulled down his order and made change. When Harry returned to the table and received another disapproving look from Padma he popped open the carton and slid the contents out.

A frown overtook his face. "I miss the fried pies. Baked just isn't the same."

Padma dropped her plastic spork and blew out a breath of disgust.

"What," Harry said through a mouth full of baked pie.

"How can you just sit there stuffing your face?"

Harry looked from side to side in confusion then swallowed. "Well I got pulled away from my normal lunch hour to chase this dog-demon thing, and I missed my normal dinner hour saving our asses from the very same dog-demon. So, I'm kinda hungry."

Padma leaned forward and slid her hand in her hair as she slumped. "In case you haven't noticed we've been effectively targeted by something that is immortal and would like nothing better than to rip out our hearts."

Harry shrugged. "You have to take time out to eat and sleep, Padma. If you don't then you are going to be dead on your feet when it comes time to fight. Oh, and the dead on your feet thing … no pun intended."

She ignored his joke and moved her eyes around the dining room. Harry noticed and sighed slightly. "It's not going to attack us in public."

Padma stopped her visual reconnaissance and look at him. "You don't know that."

Harry nodded. "Sure I do. It's a simple deduction." He set down the last remnants of his pie and wiped his fingers on a napkin. "It's only ever initially attacked people in private. It's a lot easier to take out your victim if they don't have people to back them up."

Padma shrugged her acceptance. "What do we do now?"

Without a thought Harry set a very confidant look on his face. "We are going to get a room at the campus hotel, get some sleep, pick up Sir Constipated in the morning and go back to London."  

It didn't take Padma long to say, "I don't think that I can sleep knowing that thing can just pop in whenever and wherever it feels like."

Harry conceded the point. "We'll sleep in shifts. I'll take the first if you'd like."

She nodded for a second. "Wait, what? You're saying the same bedroom?"

A small smile crept up on Harry's face. "Believe it or not, Padma, I have been known to be in the same room with a woman and not have sex with her."

She scoffed. "Pfft."

"No, really, I was alone with Hermione for quite a long time during Ron's desertion," he said in defense of his honor.

She raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't count."

"Why?"

She shrugged.

Harry's eyes narrowed. "No, really … tell me why."

"Well, she's not exactly brimming full of femininity, Harry," said Padma.

All sense of humor left Harry's face. "If you call her Herman I'm going to get violent."

In her defense Padma looked insulted. "I have never called her Herman. That was Parvati."

"Right," he said as he was less than convinced.

Trying to defuse the situation, she continued. "I am just pointing out that the girls you spend time with are very beautiful."

Less than convinced Harry countered. "And this predisposes me to shag every girl that crosses my path?"

Padma shrugged. "Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, Lavender Brown, Su Li, Laurel Michaelson, Ginny Weasley…"

"I have never had sex with Ginny Weasley," he shot in.

Mildly surprised she added, "Oh really. She seems to think different." Padma laughed under her breath. "She was quite descriptive with the encounter."

Harry shrugged in annoyance. "Well then it must be true." Fed up with the direction of the conversation he stopped her from continuing. "Look, we can sit here and I can regale you with tales of my sex life or you can get a relative good night's sleep. I mean you are nice looking and all, Padma, but I think I can restrain myself for one night. So what's it going to be?"

o_o

"Oh hell, that was good," Padma said through heavy breath as she fell back against the mattress.

Harry wheezed. "This totally blows my ability to restrain myself. I feel so naughty."

Padma laughed. "I'm telling everyone I meet that you couldn't keep your hands to yourself."

"Well if you didn't go and do a striptease right in front of me I could have controlled myself."

"Ha! I was in the loo and you were on the other side of the room," she claimed. "I didn't even have a chance to put on the cheap bathrobe.

"See! That's what I'm saying. Out you waltz in your knickers while I'm saying my evening prayers."

"You dropped your wand," she countered. "You were not praying."

"I was good though, wasn't I?"

She nodded. "After the third time I think you found your rhythm."

Wiping at the sweat on his brow he chuckled. "I think Ginny Weasley and her storytelling has gotten me shagged way more than I could have done otherwise." He paused for a moment and noticed the light from the window. "Oh look, it's morning already."

Padma pushed herself up from the bed. "I'm going to shower."

Harry smiled to himself at the retreating backside of his morning lover. "What's that?"

"Hmm?" she replied and turned slightly to look over her shoulder.

Harry pointed as he shifted to his side and raised himself up. "On your lower back. Is that a star?"

Padma's hand moved to her hip and she stopped herself from reaching around and touching the black tattoo. "Oh … yeah. Just a little something from the celebration after I turned seventeen." She shrugged. "Misspent youth."

Harry smirked. "You've got a wild side to you."

She returned his expression in kind. "You have no idea, Harry." And with that she grabbed a towel from the shelf above the sink and disappeared to the shower.

O_O

Manspark was rather subdued on the trip back to London, so much so that he didn't even flinch at Apparition or the Transportation Portal. Harry guessed that ripping your own face off might have certain psychological pitfalls of which he wasn't aware. It really wasn't even until they were half way to Buckingham Palace that the Genealogist said something other than an acknowledging grunt.

"Sir Harry?"

"That's me," Harry returned, trying to stay as glib as possible under the circumstances.

Manspark cleared his throat and set his face in stone. "It appears that I was – premature in my estimate of your character."

Harry blinked away his confusion. "Huh?"

The Genealogist's face twisted up in frustration at having to explain himself further. "I was wrong in treating you as you were below me," he said as simply as he could. "I am apologizing, Sir Harry."

Harry shrugged. "Oh, well in that case. Okay." He waited for a few moments until he was sure that Manspark was satisfied that his apologies were accepted. "You know, of course, that I'm still not going to let up on the jokes."

There was a slight tremor beside Manspark's injured eye, almost, but not quite a twitch. "Please, feel free to derive your childish pleasures from whatever makes you happy."

A wide smile stretched across Harry's face. "Now there's the Rupert that we all know and love."

Trying to cut off the impending banter Padma asked a question. "Sir Rupert, how is the new eye? Were the healers able to make full restoration?"

Manspark reached up and lightly touched his cheek below the injured eye. "It is not quite a hundred percent." He paused in quick thought. "It is like I am seeing through a thin fog with one eye and perfectly well through the other. Quite distracting."

"I'd imagine," she offered in sympathy. Then she continued. "I wanted to let you know, Sir Rupert that Harry confronted the beast without second thought…"

Harry shook his head in denial. "Padma, don't. We're guys. We do things a certain way. If you go and make me sound all noble and self-sacrificing, no matter how true it is, then he's going to feel weird, and then I'll feel weird. There'll be this whole weird thing going on. Guys don't do this." He puffed out his chest comically. "You're messing around in sacred guy rituals."

Then as an afterthought he added. "We're not going to hug so get that out of your pervy mind."

"Certainly not," Manspark added in firm agreement.

The limousine came to a stop and the door was opened by the attendant standing outside. "Welcome back Sir Rupert, Sir Harry."

Manspark nodded in acknowledgement. Harry jumped out and pumped the attendant's hand. "Harry Potter, Knight Commander, Order of the Bath. How's it goin'?"

He clapped the attendant in his shoulder with his free hand and smiled excitedly.

"Um," the attendant clambered. "I …"

"Excellent!" Harry shot back.

Manspark looked on with distain. "Sir Harry, would you please not molest the staff."

The previous night's activities shot through his mind. "Too late."

They made their way through the palace to Manspark's office where a single Auror stood guard by the door and two others were inside with the Deputy Secretary of the Order. Upon their entrance a seventy-something man in a tailored suit took to his feet with a very angry look about him.

"Rupert, what the bloody hell is going on!" He rounded the desk and made his way to Manspark. "I was pulled out of my bed at eleven o'clock by these three hooligans and dragged off to the downstairs quarters. They tell me my life is being threatened and…"

"Michael," said Manspark, cutting his friend off. "I was nearly killed last night and would have been without the efforts of Sir Harry." He paused for a moment and then added, "Your life and those of the officers of the Order are in great peril."

Harry turned his head toward Padma. "As opposed to average peril."

Sir Michael Covington caught the Senior Auror's eye and confusion showed on his face. "Sir Harry? Of what Order?"

"Our own," answered Manspark. "Her Majesty though it prudent to enlist his services. He has certain gifts that have proven most useful."

Covington's eyes narrowed then shot to the Auror's around the room before returning to Harry who pulled his coat apart to shove his hands in his pockets.

"Magic users," the Deputy Secretary said with irritation. He turned fully to Manspark. "What did I say, Rupert? Letting them run roughshod through the government was a mistake. There are reasons that we have kept the societies separate."

Harry smiled and arched his back slightly. "Couldn't agree with you more, Sir Michael, but this wasn't caused by today's society on either side. It's been around for hundreds of years." He stepped forward on one leg and cupped his mouth using a stage whisper. "And we prefer the term Wizard or Witch; much more P.C." Harry winked at Covington and nodded at the two Aurors standing guard.

After they took their cue and went to stand their post in the hall Harry continued. "Your quarters underground are being outfitted to possibly prevent the attack." Harry didn't look quite convinced at the precautions. "It may or may not work, but I'm not going to take any chances on something simple just because of my doubts."

"What are you talking about?" Covington shook his head in confusion.

Manspark waved a hand at the small conference table. "Maybe we should have a seat." Before joining them he turned and made his way to the locked cabinet to procure some of the brown liquor that he had the previous day.

Covington looked on with a surprised and somewhat disapproving eye but said nothing. Harry once again struggled with the sword at his left hip and wound up detaching it and setting it on the table. Once they were all relatively comfortable Harry took the lead.

"For some reason we've yet to uncover, the officers of the Order are being systematically killed off every seventy years since its inception." He paused to watch the look on Covington's face change from curiosity to concern. "There is a demonic creature know as a Hound of Tindalos that has the ability to appear wherever and whenever it wants, drive its victim insane with pain through some unknown way …"

Manspark interrupted. "Saliva."

"Excuse me?" asked Harry.

"It's the saliva," Manspark said before he swallowed in remembrance.  "I was washing my hands when I smelled something that was … unnatural. I turned and there it was." He sipped at the half-empty glass. "It spat at me, in my face. I've never felt such pain."

Padma shuttered beside Harry. He spared a glance at her to see her eyes closed.

"Great," said Harry and then shrugged. "Well at least we know something we didn't yesterday. I might add that its blood has the same effect, crippling pain."

Covington looked on with disbelief. "You are serious? Such a creature exists?"

Harry raised his hand high. "Stands about this tall, looks like a cross between Mr. Universe and Huckleberry Hound, with a tail that has these nasty curved barbs. Oh, and you can't forget the gigantic mouth full of spiked teeth which isn't enough because on the end of its two-foot long tongue it has yet another mouth." He squinted in thought. "Anything I miss?"

Before the rehashing of what Padma considered old news she jumped into the conversation. "Harry, we need to contact the Unspeakables. Now that we've narrowed it down to the Hounds they should have more information."

Feeling just a tad irritated Harry rubbed at his eyes in frustration. "And we didn't start there because…"

Padma shrugged. "Have you ever been down to the Department of Mysteries Records Room?"

Reflecting back to the end of his fifth year at Hogwarts he squinted and then shook his head. "Records Room, no."

O_o

As soon as the entered the lift at the Ministry of Magic Harry's mood soured. Even twelve years after the fact, Harry had not been below the Atrium level of the Ministry. The long L-shaped hallway had not changed, neither had the so-called security measures to keep out unwanted visitors. What had been added since Harry's last visit to the Department of Mysteries was a single guard station.

"Purpose of your visit to the Department of Mysteries," said the monotonous voice of the plump wizard.

"Access to the Records Room, Auror Business," Harry returned with a less than jovial attitude.

"Identification."

Harry gave him the fish-eye and then retrieved his Auror badge. The guard examined and then set it on the desk. He pointed his wand at the revolving wall where the doors were that led to the bowels of the Department.

"Seventh door to the left."

Harry grabbed his badge and led the way to the seventh door.

"Harry, what's wrong?" asked Padma in an overly concerned voice.

He stopped and didn't bother turning. "I don't like this place – and no, I will not be all angst-ridden and share my feelings on the subject." He took a quick breath placed an overly fake smile on his face. "So let's get what we came for and get the hell out of here, 'kay, fine, right."

After opening the door he stepped inside the room and came to a full stop. "Oh – my – freaking – god."

As far as he could see there were boxes stacked atop one another. Piles of paper, and parchment leaned against endless walls. Some piles had collapsed while others were tittering as if the slightest breeze would scatter them across the floor.

"Oh, hell no," he said in astonishment. "Please tell me I'm not spending the rest of my life in here searching for one piece of parchment that holds all the answers."

"Not exactly," Padma snickered. "Come on. And whatever you do, don't touch anything."

Harry scoffed. "No shit."

Padma led him in a trek through the mess to the left side of the room. "Everything here has its place. As long as you store something in the general area it's supposed to be in then we can access the information." She stopped as she was about to step over a box and almost lost her balance into a seven foot pyramid of parchment. Harry grabbed her arm and pulled her back receiving a smile of thanks in return.

"Sorry," she said. "Anyway, we're heading to the main reference book for this section. See," she pointed to a good sized text sitting on a pedestal. "That's the one for Dark Creatures. It should cover what we are looking for."

They ducked under a makeshift shelf that was stacked with boxes.

"We couldn't have come here instead of going to the States?"

Padma shrugged. "We could have but do you know how many Dark Creatures there are and have been in existence." She didn't wait for an answer. "Thousands, ten of thousands. Trust me; it was much easier to narrow it down with the materials Myerson wanted. And since we know what we are looking for then we can access all the pertinent information on the creature."

When they arrived Padma opened the book to the index and started flipping a number of pages at a time, delving deep into the book. The thing that Harry noticed was that the book looked that it maybe held a couple of hundred pages at the most, but once she got halfway through it didn't seem she was making any further progress. She just kept turning more and more pages.

He looked over her shoulder and saw as she was progressing nicely through the alphabet to the H's. Once she found the appropriate letter she slowed her pace and paid closer attention.

"Weird," he commented.

Looking around once more he sighed at feeling the impending boredom. "So how come you know so much about this place?"

"I worked here for two years," she said matter-of-factly. "Oh, here we are: The Hounds of Tindalos."

"Blah, blah, blah," she murmured to herself as she skimmed the material. "I already know that, tell me something I don’t … oh."

"Oh, what oh?" asked Harry as he moved in closer.

Padma turned around. "They're independent creatures that pretty much appeared around the dawn of time. It means that they don't necessarily work for anyone other than themselves. They aren't slaves to any particular Old One or Elder God." At the inquiring look on Harry's face she grinned. "That's good news in a way, Harry. It means the odds that there is something nastier than the Hounds out there are slim."

"Ah," he pondered that while she continued to read.

She pointed at a passage in the text. "This confirms what the Necronomicon said about them having the ability to travel through the passages of time. That might help in explaining the whole seventy years thing."

"It really isn't seventy years to them is it?" asked Harry.

She shook her head. "I'd say not. It might be minutes, hours, or years. We have no way of knowing."

Harry shook his head to clear out the confusion. "Is there a way to hunt these things down?"

"No," Padma said conclusively. "They hunt you down." She looked back to the text. "They normally catch sight of their pray when they are being scried upon. Basically if they see you, you're dead." She said flatly. "They'll cross countless millennia to hunt you down and apparently rip out your heart."

Harry shoved his hands in his pockets and spun in place with a sour look on his face. "This makes no sense. The officers of the Order currently are and were Muggles, right?"

Padma nodded. "Except for you."

"So exactly how are they able to scry, much less scry into the past?"

No answer was forthcoming so Harry asked another question. "How about protections?"

She shook her head. "Nothing that would protect us against an independent creature. If it were one of the Old Ones or an Elder God then I could suggest something. Even if they were servants of one of them, but …" Padma blew out a frustrated breath. "We couldn't even secure a single room enough to keep these things out. I mean the whole 'no angle' thing is pure conjecture. It might only be a coincidence that it disappeared into the angle of the corner. It might have passed through a nice flat wall just as well."

Harry nodded and then cocked his head to the side looking like he was about to make a decision. "Fine then, we trap the bitch and kill it before it can poof away into smoke."

Padma looked less than convinced. "Harry, we don't even know if it can be killed."

"Are you saying that if we trapped it and picked it apart piece by piece; then maybe, oh, I don't know, popped each piece in a bucket of cement, let it dry and then dropped it to the bottom of the ocean that it wouldn't work?"

Padma snapped her mouth shut and looked at him like it was the most brilliant idea in the world. "Uh."

He smirked at her response. "You know, you're kinda hot when I'm smarter than you."

Padma's elated face dropped to an insulted grimace. "You are not smarter than me."

o_O

"Hi Harry!"

Harry and Padma turned into the Auror pool after exiting the lift. He stopped and forced a happily surprised look on his face. "Hannah, how's it going?"

Hannah rushed up to the Senior Auror. "I heard about the mess over at Miskatonic U. last night. Are you okay?" she said as she looked like she wanted to run her hands down his jacket, or perhaps elsewhere. She stopped herself short and eyed Padma. "Oh, hello Parvati."

"It's Padma, Hannah. She's working with me on the case," Harry clarified.

Before Hannah could start in again Harry cut her off. "Who's on duty today?"

Hannah's eyes lit up. "Oh, Su Li and I. Everyone else is out on assignment."

His smile stayed thin and tight. "Great! Well suit up. I need back up."

She turned and almost ran back. "Su Li!"

An Asian girl's head popped up from the middle of the cubicles. "Oh, Hi Harry," she said and then smiled brightly.

Padma leaned in and lowered her voice to a whisper. "Is there anyone from our class that you haven't shagged?"

He turned his head slightly and gave her narrow eyes. "Parkinson …" his eyes widened a little as he tried desperately to remember another name.

"Harry, that was supposed to be a joke," she replied in disbelief. "You aren't serious. Everyone?"

His mouth opened slightly but no sound came out.

"Millicent Bulstrode?"

A very pained look fell over his face. "I was very drunk. It was a late. She used Polyjuice Potion … would you believe the Imperius Curse?"

Padma visibly shuddered. "I can't believe I slept with you."

"Oh! Parvati!"

Shock overcame her face. "You slept with Parvati!"

"No," he held his hands up. "I mean I didn't. And there's more. I just don't remember the names after ten years."

"Eloise Midgen?"

"No, HA!" Harry proclaimed in victory. "See, not everyone."

Padma saw the two female Aurors returning so she let the subject drop for the time being. Harry smiled at his little triumph and pressed the call button for the lift.

Su and Hannah double checked their robes and wand, as was standard operating procedure for Aurors before they left the Ministry, when the lift doors open. Harry waved them in and followed with Padma after. When he turned around Padma crossed her arms and stewed slightly.

"Daphne Greengrass," she said abruptly as the lift doors closed.