Harry Potter: The Witty Wizard

Grabbing his muggle wallet, as opposed to his wizarding purse - it was easier to keep the two currencies separated that way - he found one of the aurors down on the lower ground floor and let him know his plans.

"It's just a short walk," he told the auror. "It should take thirty minutes, there and back, tops. And most of that is going to be actual shopping."

Not waiting for the auror to respond, he then went looking for Hermione. He met her coming down the stairs as he was going up.

"Shopping trip!" he declared.

"Pardon?" she asked.

"Shopping trip!" he replied. "Wanna come with? I have to pick up groceries. With the amount of food I'm eating... plus, all the guests... we're getting a little low."

"Oh, grocery shopping," she smiled. "Harry; when talking to a female, you need to be more explicit."

He just waved it off as a nothing and asked, "Coming?"

"Alright," she replied. "Let me get my purse."

"No need. I'm got plenty!" he declared.

"Then let me at least get my coat," she said. "You should probably put one on, too. It's getting quite chilly out there."

"Okay," he chirped, before dashing the rest of the way up the stairs they were standing on to go to his room.

The young female auror, who had turned up at the base of the stairs while they were talking, said, "He is as excited about shopping for groceries as you or I would be about clothes."

Hermione just smirked back and wryly said, "I noticed."

With her having further to travel, Harry was waiting in the entrance foyer with the auror when Hermione came back down from her room. It appeared he was arguing with her.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Auror Cassidy, here," he replied, "Is of the opinion she needs to accompany us."

"Then let her," shrugged Hermione.

"Aren't you getting a little sick of the constant over-watch the aurors are putting on us?" he asked.

"No, not really," she replied. "It's nice to have someone around my age - even if the aurors are at least four years older than us - to talk 'girl talk' with."

He sighed and said, "Fiiiine."

While he was helping Hermione to don her coat, she'd carried it down with her rather than donning it upstairs, Cassidy changed into mugglewear by the simple expedience of pulling her auror robes off over her head. Underneath, she was wearing a hood-less well-worn windcheater, jeans and trainers.

Plucking a 'scrunchie' that matched the windcheater out of the fob pocket of her jeans, she used it to tie her shoulder-blade length hair back into a ponytail. Then she transfigured her auror robes into a plain brown calf-length duster coat and donned it without buttoning it up. It was cold out, but not that cold.

After helping Hermione don her coat, a similar style to the auror's transfigured one, he asked the auror, "Do all the aurors wear casual muggle clothes under their robes?"

"Nope," she replied. "Just most of us on this detail. Most wear wizarding casuals."

"Hunh!" he softly exclaimed. "And your bosses don't get upset?"

"On this detail it's encouraged," she replied.

Now ready, the three made their way out and to the shops, with Hermione immediately taking Harry's hand. Auror Cassidy held right back to give them privacy. But remained close enough to be 'there' if something unexpected happened.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

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After a floo-call from Ted, Sirius flooed to his office.

"What've you discovered?" he immediately asked.

"The goblins got back to me with the information on the suspected Malfoy child," Ted immediately replied. "They've hit a dead end."

Sirius immediately frowned and asked, "The child's dead?"

"No, no," Ted was quick to correct. "I meant... they reached a point where they couldn't find any more leads - the trail died."

"What do they have, then?" he asked.

With the investigation file open before him on his desk, Ted quickly checked his overview notes and replied, "There was certainly a child born. Her name is, or was, Corina Cephei Malfoy; born the tenth of August 1982; at home at Malfoy Manor. The midwife and her assistant have been Obliviated of all knowledge of it. All official records have been 'disappeared'; including all records of the child from Saint Mungo's archives."

"10th of August 1982?" asked Sirius, grinning. "It sounds like old Lucy was celebrating being free of Voldemonkey by bonking his wife and it got her pregnant."

"Yes, there were quite a few births around that time," smirked Ted. "It may very well be the reason the Malfoys chose a home birth.

"Anyways, continuing," he said, "The goblins, however, have their own records regarding the births and deaths of the Heirs of the Houses. Their records show she disappeared at about two months of age. This is confirmed by Lucius Malfoy informing the Gringotts Account Manager of the Magical House of Malfoy that they were to destroy the life-stone for the girl. The account manager informed him it would be done, as he didn't want to lose the account. However, as you probably know, they never do such a thing.

"The goblins, having not destroyed the stone, have informed us she is still alive - it still glows. It is for that reason they accepted the challenge and efforts to find her.

"They know she should be of age to have received an invitation to attend Hogwarts in 1993, yet one was never sent. Therefore, it stands to reason she is no longer within the Hogwarts catchment area.

"They sent their requests for assistance out to the other Gringotts offices across the world, yet have not received any hint she may have been picked up by her coming in for an inheritance test or the like."

"Damn," snarled Sirius.

Ted then leaned forward with a wide grin on his face. "Now, this is where what I've done since comes in. I took the information the goblins gave me and started my own search. This time, in the muggle world off the back of their search in the magical world. I contracted a muggle organisation that specialises in finding 'missing persons'. They focussed on countries where English is the dominant language, first. They also focussed on going to a country as far away from England as they could get. They started in New Zealand and worked west.

"A girl of her approximate age and what she might look like currently attends a school in Perth, Australia."

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