[HP] The pros and cons of home arrest #17

Chapter #17: Memories.

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“Ma’am?” Harry questioned the older woman but she quickly stopped him.

It was clear that she was thinking about what to answer to his question, however, the more she tried to think about it the worse it felt for her, and at some point, she suddenly felt her head hurt and in a sudden movement, she suddenly collapsed on a couch.

“Mother!” Astoria said as she ran as fast as possible to aid her mother.

Harry did the same, he got close to them, this was the worst outcome that could happen because he didn’t have time to waste with stuff like this, if the woman was hiding something, he was going to have to treat her like a suspect in her daughter’s disappearance, after all, it wouldn’t be the first time a prisoner’s parents try to free them.

“Ah…Thank you but…I’m fine,” the older woman said to Astoria and Harry.

“Are you sure ma’am?” Harry asked with a raised brow and she slowly nodded.

“Yes…It’s just that…I remembered something that happened yesterday,” the older woman said as she massaged her temple.

Harry raised one brow as he stared at the older woman’s face.

“Would you care to elaborate?” Asked the young man with a calm and curious tone.

He tried to be as empathetic as possible, but it was hard to act nicely in a situation like this.

“Well…I visited Diagon Alley to buy the ingredients I use for Daphne’s meals because I like to personally buy and choose the ingredients myself every day, I trust no domestic elf to do something as important as that,” the older woman said with complete despise towards those creatures.

Still, Harry decided to not say something that could anger her, it was better to be on her side if he wanted to get over with this as soon as possible, after all, he wanted to rescue Daphne as soon as he could.

“Well, something really weird happened after I was getting ready to get back home…I felt like I lost a few minutes…One second I was speaking with a friend on the street and then, I was in an alley near Knockturn Alley,” the older woman said with a shocked tone.

Harry’s eyes suddenly widened, he knew what was going on here because he had spoken with people who had gone through the same situation as her.

“Ma’am, I need you to tell me who was the person you were talking to before you lost the sense of time…I’m afraid that you were obliviated,” Harry said bluntly.

There was no time to be gentle with news like this, the sooner dropped this, the less drama there could be.

“W-What? There’s no way I—” the older woman tried to contradict Harry’s statement.

What Harry was saying wasn’t a theory, he was one hundred percent sure that what he said was what happened, she wasn’t the first person he knows has had an experience like that and he was sure she wouldn’t be the last.

However, the older woman suddenly realized something, the more she tried to think about who that person was, the less she could remember, the image of that person was blurred and the last thing she remembered was looking back to see the person who decided to speak to her in the middle of the street, but then, there's a void in her vault of memories she doesn't remember and the last thing she remembers is being in a random alley near Knockturn alley.

“No way…It can’t be…But…It was in the middle of the day!” The older woman felt scared right now.

It made sense for Harry to see her acting like that, after all, someone decided to play with her mind, and he knew that the person who did that was for sure related to what happened to Daphne.

“That doesn’t matter Mrs. Greengrass, it’s clear that the person you spoke with is someone you trusted, that’s why they managed to get you elsewhere where they got Daphne’s information either by using magic or by you telling them due to the familiarity you share with that person which then erased the memory of that encounter,” Harry explained to the older woman.

It’s not usual for criminals to do something like this to the people they’re close with, but in the rare cases this has happened, it followed that same pattern, it always happens during a random encounter that ends with the victim losing a few minutes of their life, in some cases, people lose hours but that’s not that common during these days.

There was silence now, the older woman felt disappointed in herself for falling for something so simple, her daughter tried to comfort her as Harry tried to answer the questions that were getting on his mind, however, he decided to leave that for later, it seems like the older woman already told him everything she knew, so, he now had to focus on finding that person.

“Ma’am, I need you to tell me about your close circle of friends, the ones you think you can find in the middle of the street, and greet you without any problem,” Harry said with a serious expression.

Soon, the older woman tried to think deeply and some names started to come out of her mouth and Harry wrote all of them, he was going to send this information to Ron so the intelligence guys could dig deeper, as for him, he was going to search evidence by his own.

“Those are all the people I consider I would greet nicely in the street,” the older woman finished and Harry nodded satisfied, it was a long list but it was something at least.

“Thank you, ma’am, I just have two last questions…Do you remember the place and hour where you found that person?” Asked the dark-haired wizard.

The older woman suddenly tried to think and surprisingly, it seemed like that information wasn’t lost.

“It happened outside a coffin shop…It’s a very popular place where purebloods buy the coffins for their deceased loved ones but it’s also a popular place where vampires buy the beds where they sleep, and it was around 1:00 PM, I remember that because the Diagon Alley clock had just marked the hour and the first thing I did after appearing in that random alley was to check the clock once again, it was around 1:08 PM at that moment,” the older woman told him.

“Thank you so much, Mrs. Greengrass, I think this will be enough for me to work with, still, the Aurors are on their way,” Harry told her with a serious tone.

“What? But why?” The older woman was confused, she thought that after giving Harry that information, there wouldn’t be anything else she could do, she was too worried about her daughter to answer any more questions.

“Because we don’t want to risk the kidnappers doing the same with you two, so, please stay here, they’re not going to take too long,” Harry said with a calm expression on his face, and soon, the main door was knocked.

Harry walked as fast as he could and then he greeted another group of Aurors, Ron was coming with them, it seemed like he had been sent by Hestia Jones.

“Harry let’s—” Ron tried to order Harry as he was technically his superior right now.

“Sorry Ron, I need to investigate something…Mrs. Greengrass, please tell Ron and the guys everything you told me,” Harry said to Daphne’s mother.

The older woman wasn’t in the mood but she couldn’t find the strength to deny what Harry told her to do. As for Harry, he had just one thing in mind, finding Daphne was the priority, so, he disappeared as soon as possible and now, he was outside the coffin shop where everything had happened.

Harry entered the shop as soon as possible, there he was greeted by the owner, he was a young man, he was younger than him but he was showing the calmness of an old man even though Harry had an angry look on his face.

“Ah…Mr. Potter, it’s a pleasure to see someone like you here, it seems like you’ve heard about the quality of our coffins,” the shopkeeper said with a happy expression.

“Wow…Now that you mention it, they’re kind of expensive, I’m sure the business has been great these past few years…Right Dimitri?” Harry asked with a raised brow as he looked at the shopkeeper’s name.

“That’s right, the business has been good indeed,” the man chuckled.

“And I’m sure it had something to do with the fact that I’ve been sending death eaters to hell in a big quantity,” Harry’s tone made the shopkeeper feel a little worried.

“Well…It could be…” Dimitri was a little embarrassed.

“That’s good to hear Dimitri, don’t worry, you don’t have to pay me for that but I need a favor from you…I want to know who was the person who spoke with this woman,” Harry said with a cold tone as he showed one picture of Daphne’s mother.

The shopkeeper couldn’t help but gulp, just like death, he had always thought of him as neutral, but it seemed like that was over for now.