1,816A Life Worth Living
Chapter 50
It was a good job that Harry and Peters 'Date night' had been for a weeks time. For, the last few days had been…hectic to say the least. Peter had indeed asked Cora and Derek if they wanted the new information that had come to light. Unsurprisingly, they'd both been desperate for the truth. The thought of being lied to, or the truth omitted more like, did not sit well with them.
The truth had broken something in Derek, shattered a barrier that was irreparable. The knowledge that his sister had knowingly abandoned Aaron and Cora…destroyed him. Obliterated every single fond memory he had of her. The little bit of anger clinging to Derek still regarding Peter killing his sister – even unwittingly – had been abolished. He was more tactile than ever. Although, he had been really annoyed with Harry for forcing him to go to his therapist five times that week…for 'emergency' sessions.
Fortunately, Harry did indeed know better, and it had been something Derek needed. He needed someone outside of the pack to talk to, about everything in a safe environment and actually process his feelings. He'd never been good with feelings, not since he was fifteen years old, not since Paige and then Kate just made it worse.
Cora hadn't been surprised at all, she'd been so angry that she'd broken down and cried her frustration out. Since then she'd been using the finished obstacle course, and running a lot with the wolves, all of them, in order to exhaust her frustration. Taking what Harry said to heart, and trying to be less defensive which was a result of her frustration. Derek and Erica were the ones who frequently raced her on the obstacle course.
Having 'baby' Aaron around helped calm them all down, the boy was six months old. The pack was constantly around him, so much so that Harry barely got a chance to hold him. He had his birth certificate in both mundane and magical society, the magical society one was truthful but the mundane one believed that the child was that of 'Harriet Potter', Harry Potter's 'sister' who had passed away two weeks ago. The father was 'Peter Hale' so as not to have people suspicious as to why the child might look like both Harry and Peter. Harry had naturally adopted his 'nephew' along with Peter to give him a 'good' upbringing. Just another day at the office where magic was concerned.
Stiles and Teddy had both been excited when they first met the baby, and had demanded to go with Harry get everything the little one would need. Stiles and Teddy thought it was funny to get as much 'wolf' supplied items as they possibly could. Peter hadn't come of course, since he wasn't legally back in the USA yet. He was still in 'Britain' and a lot of his time was spent studying and taking exams in MACUSA and spending time with the two Beta's that had captured his interest and of course his pack.
There was one good thing about having a kid in the house, was that everyone was woken up at the same time every morning. The routine would be that Harry and Peter would get up with Aaron and take him to the kitchen and began cooking the food for the day while one of them fed Aaron. Normally Peter, since Harry was most definitely the cook.
The back door was then opened for the wolves to flood out and quickly do their morning routine peeing and patrolling around the garden.
"He's doing well," Harry murmured softy, stroking his hand over Aaron's soft head of hair, if he wasn't mistaken Aaron was definitely going to end up with the cursed Potter 'bird nest' hair. It made him nostalgic, remembering Teddy's younger years, the strain had been quite hard on him, back then…but he'd nonetheless ensured Teddy had a good upbringing and he'd succeeded.
His eyes were blue, just like Peter's, there were subtle differences from the Aaron then and Aaron now, enough that he could live an unencumbered life in both worlds. Without suspicion, and what was wrong with naming a child after one that had passed on? It's what families did after all. That's if anyone would actually remember him, humans had a habit of forgetting tragedies, they didn't want to dwell on them.
"He is," Peter said proudly, the weight upon his shoulders seeing Aaron the way he had been was gone. He hadn't forgotten of course, but not seeing it every day had eased the burden significantly, for why dwell on it when Aaron had a second chance at life?
Not even fifteen minutes later, the pack all shuffled in, still in their nightwear, some yawning some wide awake. The smell of breakfast enticing them from the pack pile they'd had going on for a week now, with Aaron safely ensconced in the middle.
"Morning," Harry said giving them all an amused look from where he was cooking breakfast.
"Morning dad," Teddy said before yawning.
"Do you have any exams today?" Harry asked, giving him a pointed look.
"Not today, tomorrow," Teddy explained, shaking his head negatively. Hogwarts had exams at the weekend, mostly due to the fact that everyone who attended Hogwarts was there full time, it was a boarding school after all. Which meant they were able to stretch out the exams instead of cramming them all into ten days, Monday through Friday for a fortnight, depending on the classes one took of course.
Harry nodded absently, as he flicked his wand, and plates flew out of the cupboard and onto the table in front of them as they sat down ready to have breakfast.
"Is your dad working today, Stiles?" Harry questioned, as he plated out everyone's breakfast, Peter absently passing a plate to the pack, until everyone had their own plates.
"Yes, he's pulling a double, all the animal deaths have the department befuddled." Stiles explained, "He has a new Deputy to train too. Jordan Parish. Is there any left I can take for him?" sounding hopeful, Harry's food while delicious was always healthy. He'd already checked him out, using his father's own database to do it. At least his father knew what was going on, but he couldn't exactly explain that to the others at the station, so he was trying to get them to move on. write up their reports and be done with the 'unexplained phenomenon' off animals acting weird. Between 'lions' and 'wolf's' killing people to deer crashing into peoples cars and dogs acting up. It was certainly strange enough for even cops to gossip about at the end of the day.
Harry just smirked and passed over two Tupperware boxes to Stiles, too predictable by half. Even while he was here, Stiles was constantly monitoring his father's eating habits.
Harry grabbed his and Peter's own plate and sat down, before immediately digging in, knowing none of the others would touch their plate until they did. Especially Cora and Derek, who had been raised to show respect to the Alpha by waiting until they begin eating before they do.
Just after taking a single bite, his phone went off, sighing in exasperation, he put his fork and knife down, chewing the food he had in his mouth and painfully swallowing it as he hastened to answer his phone when he noticed it was a familiar one. MACUSA.
"Hello?" Harry spoke into his phone, aware that nearly everyone there could hear his conversation and not moving. Only Stiles would not hear it at least until he learned the spell that would allow him to eavesdrop.
"Hello, Sir, Auror Hogg here, it would seem someone has sent hunters to grab Mr. Hale at the airport." She informed him.
"He's not at the airport," Harry informed her in confusion, stating the obvious.
"We know, Sir, but the hunters didn't know that, they're Argent hunters…" she continued to explain, "We've arrested them."
"Who's in charge of the Argent fraction now? It's matriarchically run…both women are now in prison," Harry asked staring blankly at nothing in particular.
"Here in the USA yes, but they originated in France," Peter explained, as Harry put it on speaker. "We may well be dealing with the new Argent Matriarch from France…" nobody missed the exasperation in his voice, and nobody could blame him.
"It's understandable, I mean, all they'll know is that an entire faction of the Argent family has gone missing…and the last place they were was in Beacon Hills…they might be after any Hale they can get their hands on in order to find out what happened." Hogg insisted.
"Not missing, everything was revealed, their imprisonment, Kate Argent's death, the incest factor and even the daughter and Scott McCall have been named…I made sure it was published and ensure word got around." Harry explained blankly, placing the phone on the table, there was no point to trying to keep the conversation private. "There has to be a factor we're missing." Some other reason they could be going after the Hale's again.
"We are going to question them this evening, we might get answers then," Hogg informed him, "I just thought it best to update you, see if you could shed light on the situation."
"Unless it's revenge pure and simple, I have no idea," Harry replied, a frown marring his features, "I mean…if they found out he was coming into the USA today…then they know he's supposedly been in Britain for months…throughout what was supposed to have gone down. This makes very little sense…and the likelihood of them having answers are slim, they'll be foot soldiers." That was all they were good for in the eyes of the matriarch.
Peter nodded in agreement, unless they'd overheard something, it was indeed likely they knew nothing of note.
"Unless they want to use Peter to get to Derek…since he's been the only one here," Stiles pointed out, and it was well known, and that was on him and Scott. It shamed him now, just how much danger he had put Derek in…but he hadn't known even a quarter of the things he knew now.
"It's possible, anything is possible at this point," the Auror agreed, "Just be on the lookout, there may be more coming your way."
"We have someone in the police force, we'll know if there is anyone gunning for us," Harry explained, "Let me know the moment you find out what's happening, even if it's nothing,"
"I will," Auror Hogg answered seriously.
"If I don't answer leave a message, I'm going to be busy for a few hours tonight," glancing at Peter, he absolutely refused to cancel his date, and miss those reservations. He and Peter couldn't keep putting their partnership on hold. Yes, they knew each other well, or were getting there, but not as intimately as partners should, as lovers should.
Erica and Cora who listened sleepily but weren't awake enough to participate did smirk at her next words.
"Alright, I will do," a sly sound to her voice. "Have fun,"
Derek grimaced though, not out of malice but the fact he definitely didn't want to know more than he had to. Which was as always, way too much, welcome to the life of a werewolf…there was no such thing as true privacy. At least he wouldn't need to listen to whatever they get up to at night, since the spells were gloriously present allowing them to get privacy in their own room.
Harry smirked wryly, shaking his head silently, "Will go, thanks for the update," and with that he pressed the end call button, "Well, so much for that." shaking his head in slight disbelief.
"How much progress has been made with infiltrating the hunter council?" Peter questioned, or had that been set aside due to everything they'd seen so far, such as Eichen house.
Harry shook his head, "We've got two undercover right now, they've not been introduced or even given a clue as to names of the council members or even met the 'head's' of the individual hunting faction. They've not gained enough trust, despite the fact they're 'family' as it were." the wonders of magic. They needed someone high up, high enough to identify every single member of the council to do a mass sweep and get every single member and get them closed down for good. "It was never going to be a short term goal, the hunter council probably has hunter clans from all over the world on the council."
"Gerard Argent didn't know?" asked Teddy incredulously.
"Why would he? You need to remember that he wasn't considered anything more than a foot soldier." Harry easily explained with a grim look on his face. "Not a very well respected one either, the hunters will have known what he was doing, it wouldn't have shown him in a favourable light…but they didn't care enough to stop it. The woman didn't share their duties with their husbands, they gave out the orders and expected compliance." he reckoned that was the case, he could be wrong. Biting into his food, he resumed eating, there was just no point to worrying until there was a cause.
"Do you think they would have done something if his wife had succeeded in getting in touch with them before her death?" Stiles asked.
"Probably, she was the matriarch two times over of the Argent line, her word was law within the USA," Harry deduced, "He made sure she couldn't inform them and that he could continue raising his children the way he pleased." hell, he probably had a say in the way Victoria was raised. "Let's not talk about the Argents while we are eating," it was turning his stomach.
"Agreed," Erica sighed, "I guess it means we should watch our backs?" and they'd just gotten back to normal after the last time they were hunted by Argents.
"You should always be watching your back," Harry stated seriously, "Regardless of whether there is a threat or not. Just trust enough in each other that you'll be safe with them and come out intact. That's what pack is all about, trust, loyalty, family, the way of the wolf." and the way of the wolf was a simple one. Giving each of them a serious look in turn, Teddy, Stiles, Derek, Erica, Cora and then Peter, who he knew desired loyalty and family above all else.
"Is it Hermione who's working undercover?" Cora asked, she hadn't seen her for a bit.
"She's running the entire department and the investigation, but no, she's not gone undercover, luckily for us…not all of them can be indoctrinated," Harry explained as he ate, "Some leave their families behind, it's quite rare but it does happen. They see the reality for what it is, that werewolves and humans can be just as bad as each other…and they want nothing to do with it. They disown themselves and leave home…which is exactly what one woman did…she had children, and they've all gone into hiding with an announcement proclaiming she passed away…it wasn't even forty-eight hours later the undercover Aurors were approached by the hunters declaring themselves 'family' that they'd had a falling out with their mother. It was pathetically easy, well, that part anyway…" the waiting was the worst part of it all.
"Who?" nobody was surprised by Stiles' desire for more information.
"Even I'm not privy to that, only Hermione knows, and it will remain that way…at least until the operation is complete." Harry said wryly, even if he did know the information he wouldn't be handing it out, not even to Stiles, it would be putting the entire operation in danger, the less people that know the better.
Stiles pouted, but shrugged resignedly, in an 'Oh well' sort of way.
Then Harry's phone went yet again, this time with another familiar number.
Isaac.
There we go! I've accomplished 6% of my goal towards helping the NHS obtain PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) thanks to those who have helped! If you can help as well... the link is available at the very top of my profile page...anything that can be spared please do so they are in desperate need of PPE and every little helps! As promised a chapter a day ;) take care everyone and stay safe xx
