Chapter Text
Looming in the fog before them was a rusting warehouse, run down and nondescript aside from the numerous people hustling about. Ron and Harry stood just inside the Auror wards and waited as men were hauled from inside and apparated away to the MLE. It was still early, grey light barely penetrating the thick cloud cover over head, but while the other Auror’s field work was just finishing, theirs was about to begin.
“That’s the last of ‘em!” Savage shouted at them as she held tightly to the man she had Incarcerous’ed. “There’s a false closet- you’ll see it.” With that she apparated away.
Harry shrugged out of Ron’s spare coat and shrunk it down, stuffing it into one of the many pockets of his scarlet Auror robes.
“It’s not too late to take ‘em mate,” Ron worried in soft tones.
Harry sighed as he took his glasses off next and applied the vision correction charm. It made his eyes itch terribly and he rubbed them until there was only an uncomfortable dryness left behind. Ron said he wouldn't bring it up again but Harry should have known he'd break that promise.
The thing was, Harry knew it was a bad idea. The secret he'd been keeping for the last six years was on the line if he followed through, but ultimately he felt it was worth it.
“I’ve got the bottle if I need them but you know what happened last time. I just…” Harry trailed off. There was no need to specify, he'd had this conversation over and over again with Ron and one pointed gesture towards the warehouse finished his sentence for him.
Ron grimaced and scuffed the toe of his boot against a crack in the concrete.
“You know I’ve got your back, but it is really worth it? I can already smell you,” Ron said. Harry frowned at Ron until he huffed and shrugged. “Fine. I’ll get your nose.”
Once Harry’s face was glamoured beyond recognition they made their way into the warehouse, passing the newly arriving Mediwitches who would stay outside until called for. Harry shifted his robes and avoided making eye contact.
It wasn't unusual for him to use a glamour at the scene of a crime, especially if he needed a low profile or there was a large crowd around, but even with the glamour he felt overly exposed. Every gust of wind had him worrying what the others might catch on the breeze.
The overwhelming smell of bleach was the first to greet them once inside, followed by the complete lack of anything in the space save residue left over from spell fire. The black marks made a trail towards the back of the warehouse.
Ron led the way until they found the small closet door, propped open invitingly. Inside was a trap door behind a storage rack and the smell wafting up was so pungent it was almost a wall. Ron shared a look with Harry before descending the narrow stairs, ducking his head to avoid knocking it against the grey metal.
Soft cries and groans flowed through the air as Harry laid eyes on the scene before him.
The room was dim, small sconces holding ever-burning candles spread out sparsely in the windowless space. On either wall were rows of beds, pressed so closely together that one could barely stand in the space between them. Most of the smell seemed to be coming from the buckets below the beds, but the thick scent of Omega still managed to stab through.
In the smokey haze Harry could make out around thirty people, all women, in various states of undress chained to the bed frames. Many were curled up as small as they could get, using the thin sheets to hide away. A few were watching them warily, but their faces fell in relief when they took in their robes and badges.
“Hello,” Ron began, he kept his voice even but firm. Confident in a way that always reassured the people they helped. More eyes turned to them and the crying got louder. As Ron introduced them and began the standard ‘here to help’ spiel Harry turned a more critical eye on the women in the room.
Immediately he knew something was off but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He flexed his wrist, freeing his wand from the holster as he slowly approached the nearest bed and unlocked the woman’s shackles. She was an older Omega, maybe somewhere in her fifties, and she pointed immediately to the back of the room where another Omega was laying in a bed separated from the rest of the row.
She was young. Alarmingly so.
“Ron,” Harry grabbed his attention and nodded his head to the Omega. Ron was quickly across the room by the young girl’s side, unlocking shackles as he went, more and more women pointing to the girl.
It was wrong. Something was missing.
“Is she okay?” Harry asked the woman. She shook her head and pointed more insistently at the girl. Ron was speaking to her in hushed tones but all the girl could seem to do was shake and fold in on herself.
“Can you speak?” Harry asked the woman. She shook her head no and pointed harder. Harry cast a finite but the woman just sagged, eyes filling with tears, mouth moving over silent words that Harry couldn’t understand. “I’m calling the Mediwitches,” Harry said to Ron, who nodded. Harry sent his Patronus away, gasps filling the room as the Stag galloped through the walls.
Harry conjured a pen and paper and passed it to the woman but more tears fell as her hand hovered over the page, something holding it back from touching down.
What was he missing? The woman was desperately trying to tell him something, others joining in on their pointing. The girl looked alright. She was dirty and traumatized, sure, but she didn’t look physically injured nor was she actively in heat…
None of them were.
“Ron- did you see any other rooms on our way in?”
“No? What are you thinking?”
Harry took a deep breath as he scanned over the frightened faces before him. The Omega smell was strong, yes, but it wasn’t Heat strong. For not one of the thirty women here to be in heat wasn’t just unusual, it was nearly impossible.
“Is there a heat room in here?” Harry asked the woman. She let out a choked sob and nodded her head so fast it looked painful. She pointed again at the girl but Harry ignored her, checking the area around her.
There- the candle sconce by her bed had a scuff just below it. Harry would bet his life that he could pull it down and reveal an otherwise hidden door.
“Are there more traffickers in there?” Harry asked lowly. The woman nodded again and held up three fingers, then she pointed to herself and held up five. “Three traffickers, five Omegas?” Another nod.
“Sir,” A new voice called softly. Harry watched as the Mediwitch approached, holding her potions bag and looking around the room, her mouth a firm line.
“We need to get all of these people evacuated to the top floor,” Harry said watching as three more witches, Omegas as well by the smell of them, came down the stairs.
“The Heat ward at Mungo’s isn’t set up for this many, but we can get them to the other side of the warehouse for now,” she said. Harry nodded and helped unlock the rest of the shackles as the Mediwitches carefully assisted the women up the stairs. Harry watched as the last woman was escorted out and pulled Ron to the side, quickly giving him the run down and scooting the beds out of the way of the doorway.
“Ready?” Harry asked, left hand on the sconce, right hand holding his wand aloft. Ron widened his stance and gave him the go ahead.
A great grinding sounded out as the wall compressed inwards a few inches before moving to the left to reveal a hallway which flashed immediately with spell fire.
Ron’s Protego held firm as they pushed in, the three men shouting and scrambling back. One of them shot off two Bombardas in a row, sending the right wall crumbling into Ron, knocking his concentration. Harry sent off a Petrificas totalis, catching one man before he could send anymore spellfire and Ron ducked to the side and sent an Incarcerous wide, leaving a pile of ropes to fall from the ceiling and tangle between the remaining men.
Harry cast his own Protego for cover as Ron rolled out of the debris. The shield caught three bright red spells before the two men retreated down the hall, sprinting to the right.
Only one made it- the other caught a Stupefy to the back from Ron’s well aimed cast and hit the ground hard. They sprinted down the hall but paused at the corner, Harry panting as he gestured to Ron in a way only his best friend would understand.
Ron cast the shield over the both of them as they came around the corner low. A nasty green spell hit the shield, spreading widely and dripping to the floor with a hiss as the man held it. Harry helped Ron strengthen the shield with a Progeto Maxima and together they pushed it wider and wider until the wizard had no choice but to cease the spell or have it splash back on him.
The moment he stopped both Harry and Ron sent him flying with a double Stupefy and he hit the opposite wall with a crunch before crumpling to the ground.
Adrenaline was coursing through his veins and Harry scanned the rest of the area for anything else they might have missed. The room they were in now seemed to be some sort of potions lab/office space and had no notable windows, doors, or exits. Back the way they came the hall branched off to the left and lead to a heavily reinforced door.
“Accio key,” Harry said with a wave of his wand in the general direction of the downed wizards. A heavy iron key struggled to free itself from the closest wizard's pocket but eventually flew into Harry’s hand. Without waiting Harry hurried to the door, unlocking it to open it just a crack and carefully peer into the dark room.
The thick cloying smell hit him first, the sounds of moans were next. The five missing Omegas were there, naked, on bare mattresses chained at every limb to the bedframes and writhing in pain. No one else was inside. Harry closed the door and returned to Ron’s side.
“You got it?” Ron asked, stepping over the still smoking puddle of the green spell and hauling the unconscious wizard towards the other two.
“Yeah. Can you get them back on your own?”
Ron huffed a laugh, “Didn’t do all those Auror work outs for nothing mate. They won’t want to smell me in there anyways.” He pulled the Stupefyed wizard over his shoulder and looped his arm around the other two. “I’ll see if we can’t get a counter curse out of them to get the victims speaking again.”
Harry sent for a Mediwitch as Ron apparated away with the three wizards. Before Harry returned to the heat room he grabbed five sheets from the beds in the main room and steeled himself for what he was about to see.
It wasn't a new concept for him; he and Ron often found themselves with the Omega cases. It was usually easier to keep the standard Alpha Aurors out of the picture when it came to this and that meant Harry'd seen entirely too many Omegas in uncomfortable and dangerous positions.
The last bust they did one of the victims was so terrified of the Aurors that she hurt herself trying to escape- breaking a window with bars on the outside and wielding a huge shard while screaming that she knew it was a trick, that she'd had enough and she couldn't do it anymore. The only thing to calm her was another Omega who she'd been trapped with.
There was really no way to get used to it. Desensitized, sure. But even still he woke in a cold sweat after a nightmare of her blood dripping on the floor, her breaths harsh and ragged. Even if he could swallow it down in the moment those emotions always caught up with him eventually.
A soft tapping of shoes on the trap door stairs alerted Harry to a new person. It was a Healer, senior staff as shown by the golden line around the collar of her bright green robes. A mating mark was peaking out just above the line, her Omega smell mixed into something more mellow and unenticing. Her face was set in a professional smile that pulled at the wrinkles around her mouth.
She held out her hand and Harry passed her some of the sheets before leading the way back to the Heat room, directing her around the debris.
The Heat room was the same as he left it. The victim’s eyes were glazed over and unfocused when the light from the Healer's warm Lumos passed over them. That changed as the two got closer, noses flaring as they assessed the scent of the people before them.
When neither the smell of an Alpha or Beta was found the Omegas fell back into their own minds, uninterested. Harry unlocked the shackles with a quick spell and the two of them draped the spare sheets over the women’s bodies.
Except, they weren’t all women. A man- no, a boy- lay in the last bed, no older than seventeen, writhing in pain from his heat. Male Omegas were exceedingly uncommon; in his life Harry only knew one and he’d been on multiple Omega trafficking busts at this point.
The boy groaned and kicked the sheet from his flushed skin. Harry had to shake himself from his thoughts, shocked by the realization that he’d been standing there hovering without a word for long seconds.
“You-”
A glowing blue terrier shot through the wall and interrupted Harry with Ron’s voice. “We’ve got the counter curse.”
Damn, Ron was good. Harry and the Mediwitch worked quickly to uncurse everyone. The Mediwitch sent a small relief spell over the loudest woman and Harry followed suit, knowing it wouldn’t help much but it would ease at least some of the burning.
When he cast it over the boy his eyes snapped open, flicking in panic over Harry’s face before falling to his robes. His teeth clenched and he sat up only to bring his knees to his chest and claw at his skin.
“Are you hurt?” Harry felt a bit stupid asking- the boy was in heat without any aid, of course he was in pain.
“Everywhere. Burns everywhere. I-” he cut off with a sob he tried to stifle by biting his lip.
“What’s your name? How long have you been in heat?”
“James.” Harry’s heart dropped. “I don’t know. No windows,” James grit his teeth but it didn’t keep back the pained whimper in his throat. “Few days? Cast- ugh- cast that spell again?”
Harry obliged and James’ shoulders relaxed ever-so-slightly. James took a deep breath and grabbed for the sheet at the foot of the bed, pulling it over his lower half.
“Are we- are we saved?” James asked, tilting his head down so he didn’t have to look Harry in the eyes.
“Yes. They’re setting up the Heat ward at Mungos right now.”
A shudder over took James’ body and he took the sheet in a white knuckled grip. Finally he met Harry’s eyes before his brows drew together in confusion.
“You’re an Auror.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes.”
James grabbed Harry’s wrist without asking and brought it close to his face to smell him.
“You’re an Omega.”
“Yes.”
“Well you can’t be both. Only Alphas and those two Betas are Aurors,” James said, almost whining. “I wanted to be an Auror, but when I presented a few months ago they threw out my application. I had all my NEWTS. I thought-” With another cry James bent back over his knees and took deep breaths through the pain, clawing at his stomach as he did. “Why’s it,” another groan, “Gotta hurt?”
“You’re in the worst of it now,” Harry said, leaning a bit closer. “As you get older they should ease up a bit, the first few are awful.”
“You’re really an Omega?” James was looking at him with suspicion. Harry just nodded. “Why wouldn’t they…”
“To be fair, the Aurors think I’m a Beta. So,” Harry rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. He was being overly honest but seeing a male Omega had thrown him so far for a loop that he wasn't thinking about concealing his identity. It didn't help that the poor boy had the same name as his father.
“Shoulda… Thought of that.” James clawed so hard at his skin that blood began to pool under his fingers. Harry cast the relief spell again, but he knew it would have no further effect. The act of it though, seemed to calm James.
“We’ll have you home soon.”
“’m an adult. Seventeen. No home to get back to.”
A deep sadness settled somewhere behind Harry’s ribs at those words; he knew what it was like to not have a home worth returning too. “Surely you have some friends you want to see again?”
“There’s… but they… Well, anywhere is better than here.” James took another shaky breath. “You’re sure this is real?”
“Do you want me to pinch you to prove it?”
A small smile turned James’ mouth and he pinched the skin at his arm. “Feels real.” James pulled the sheet a bit higher over his hips. “Never met another male Omega.”
“Me neither.”
“Kinda sucks.”
Harry huffed a laugh, “Yeah, I’m not gonna lie, it really does sometimes.”
“Hey!” James exclaimed, but there was a real smile on his face, though it was strained. “Aren't you supposed to be all, ‘actually you come to appreciate blah blah blah’ and try to get me to accept it as the old wise guide.”
“I’m not that old.”
“Okay, sure,” James grinned.
“I’m not! It’s the-” Harry stopped himself before he could say glamours. “Whatever. I’m sure there's some support group for Male Omegas if you needed that kind of thing.”
James grimaced, “Yeah no thanks. I’ll just-” he was cut off as another wave of pain washed over him. It was always strange for Harry to see other Omegas going through the same thing he himself dreaded. To see the pain reflected back. “Deal with it.”
There was a knock on the door and James grabbed Harry’s wrist tightly, his whole body stiffening as he stared with laser focus at the door. It opened to reveal another Mediwitch who slowly approached the other witch and spoke softly to her.
James released his grip, “Sorry.”
“It’s alright,” Harry said gently. There was no way to know what James had been through and Harry had no intention of asking, but the effects of whatever had happened were obvious.
“The ward is ready- I brought a portkey,” the second Mediwitch called to Harry who nodded in acknowledgement. They began gathering the victims to their feet so everyone could touch the sock the witch held.
James groaned as he swung his legs over the side of the bed.
“I know we don’t know each other,” Harry said in a hush. “But if you need anything you can find me; send me an owl. Whatever.”
“I’m an adult,” James said again, as if being seventeen meant he didn’t need any help. His face was going redder by the second. Standing seemed to put him in more pain than before as Harry helped him drape the sheet more fully over his body.
“So am I, and I don’t know what I’m doing ninety percent of the time.”
James sent him an astonished look just as one of the other Omegas fainted to the floor, both Mediwitches descending to help her.
“I don’t even know your name,” James whispered.
Harry glanced at the commotion that held everyone else's attention and wiped his hand in front of his face to drop his glamour and pulled his glasses from his robe pocket to show James.
The surprised gasp that left him didn’t disappoint and Harry felt a cheeky smile take over his face as he put one finger in front of his mouth and shushed James. He stowed the glasses and returned the glamour just as the Mediwitch gestured for everyone to get a hand on the portkey.
“Anything you need. Let me know.” Harry reminded James who gave one unsure nod and then he was swirling away with the others.
…
By the time the warehouse was completely cleared and all of the evidence catalogued, Harry was dead on his feet. There was still a not-so-metaphorical mountain of paperwork they needed to fill out that neither of them were looking forward too. They had an unspoken agreement that they’d avoid it for now and beg off work an hour early.
Not that that meant much as they’d been working since 6 and it was now 4 and neither of them had taken a lunch. Usually Ron would pitch an absolute fit over such, but with the case being so delicate neither of them had wanted to leave the scene for some inconsequential sandwich and risk missing time sensitive evidence.
"Robards caught me hauling in the suspects," Ron said as they walked to the nearest apparation point. The streets were relatively empty in this part of Knockturn Alley and their steps echoed back at them from the narrow walls.
"Damn," Harry hissed.
"Seamus tried to help me out, say he incapacitated them and asked me to haul 'em over, but Robards knew he wasn't on the raid."
"What did he say?"
"Dunno yet, wants a meeting with me tomorrow to "discuss it" so probably another lecture about 'safety'."
Ron and Harry both knew 'safety' actually had more to do with the fact they were Betas and less to do about reckless behavior.
Robards didn't used to be so blatant about it. When they first joined the Aurors and were training, they often accompanied the senior Aurors on their field work and practiced battle magic. Now though, after becoming full fledged members of the force a bit over four years ago, Robards kept them on a tight leash of desk work and 'safe' investigations. Read: knezeal in a tree, ect. The most dangerous it got was when they allowed them on the Omega Trafficking busts when their second gender was a help rather than a (supposed) hinder.
“Do you think you’ll be in tomorrow?” Ron asked.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Harry asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.
“Well. You took your vitamins after the last of them were cleared right?”
Fuck. No, he hadn’t. Harry muttered another curse under his breath and wrestled his pill bottle from his robe pocket. Omega-3 Oil was labeled haphazardly around the brown glass; Hermione hadn’t found his joke funny but Harry had to find his joy where he could. The large pills rattled as he shook one into his palm and swallowed it dry.
The plan had always been to delay taking them so he could be scented as an Omega, offer comfort, then take them again before his body got any ideas about a heat. Being due for a Heat in the next week or two made his plan all the more precarious and he crossed his fingers this little fumble wouldn’t start it early.
“Come on man!” Ron whined. “You’re gonna leave all the paperwork for me and its gonna take me ages!”
“I’m not!” Harry flung his arm out and hit Ron on the chest. “I’ll be fine in the morning and I’ll help you with the paper work and then in two weeks I’ll use my vacation.” And Harry did feel fine, his mind was clear, his body was the proper temperature.
His libido felt normal, if a bit neglected- his sex life was abysmal; a side affect of saving the world previously and trying to maintain a secret currently.
Sure he’d taken a few people to bed- mostly women until he finally accepted that men held the ticket to staying hard long enough to cum- but half the time all he could think about was what the Prophet would print if his partner of the night blabbed. The other half was focused on maintaining his glamour.
By the time enough blood had left his brain he’d either exhausted himself, his partner, or just wasn’t in the mood any longer.
And don’t even get him started on trying to date people as Harry Potter; he still cringed when he remembered the blind date he’d had with the wizard Hermione set him up with. The Prophet had really had a field day with that one. He hadn't expected the vaguely homophobic articles but after one of them reiterated he was a Beta the worst of them seemed to lessened.
“If you’re ‘sick’ tomorrow I’m leaving all of the timing forms for you,” Ron said sternly.
Harry shuddered and shook his head as he stepped into the apparition point first. “Don’t. I’ll floo you if something comes up.”
Ron’s only response was an eye roll and Harry was landing on the front step of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place.
All he really wanted right now was to have a shower, wash the scared Omega stink off, then stuff his face with whatever he could scrounge up fastest. His wand was out to unlock the wards on the door when a movement at his front gate redirected his attention.
Waving at him frantically and shouting, though Harry couldn’t hear it through the wards, was Draco Malfoy.
And then Harry’s body felt the heat.