Promotion

by Endgames

Harry is "the" one with "the" power to defeat the Dark Lord. As in, the only one with the ability to do so. Featuring everyone being a bit smarter, and an education system that makes more sense.

2. Cleaning Up

Disclaimer: Did Sirius "tracking down" Pettigrew make it sound like he followed his scent into a crowded Muggle area? Then I don't own Harry Potter.

As always, Snowyiris129 has improved my grammar with her betaing.

Promotion

Chapter 2: Cleaning Up

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." – Thomas Jefferson

OoOoOoOoO

Sirius opened his eyes and looked around blearily. His body ached from the fight with the giants last night, and he still felt drained from the hunt afterwards. Tears accumulated in his eyes as he recalled the scene from last night. James and Lily's house, gutted. James' body downstairs, looking like it had been through a meat grinder. Lily's body upstairs, displaying the glassy stare that Sirius had become far too familiar with. At least he had seen Harry, and Hagrid would have gotten him safely to Hogwarts.

Sirius' subsequent memories were a blur of apparating and searching. Peter's house was locked, empty, and looked untouched. Frank, Alice, Diggle, Aberforth, and Arthur hadn't seen him. He was not at any of the parties in Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley. Sirius had finally splinched himself in Diagon out of sheer exhaustion. Thankfully, there was a somewhat sober Ministry worker nearby who managed to fix his foot back on. Sirius had risked only one more jump to Remus' place, which was also empty, before collapsing on the couch.

Now awake, Sirius figured he should go see if Dumbledore could help him find Peter. He should at least be able to give Sirius a more complete picture of the events of last night. No doubt the Chief Warlock was at the Ministry, trying to make the best out of the situation. Sirius moved outside of Remus' property boundary and disapparated with a pop.

Reappearing in the atrium, Sirius strode purposefully towards the wand checkpoint. Security had been beefed up in recent years, so everyone was subjected to wand checks and jabs with various probes upon entrance. The wizard started to move towards the expedited entrance that Aurors were allowed to use, but did a double-take. Lucius Malfoy exited the lifts like he owned the place, sauntering towards the exit. Sirius watched him, completely dumbfounded. Last time he saw the blond ponce, he was holding Marlene McKinnon hostage. Sirius knew that the Aurors had a general warrant out on him for Death Eater activity. The man must have been acquitted to just walk out like this.

Something clicked in Sirius' mind. The man was suspected to be a major information-broker and influence-peddler for the other side. If anyone knew about Peter, it would be him. Sirius felt bad that he was actually hoping his friend was dead – better that than a traitor.

Lucius changed course from the Disapparition Point to the wall of fireplaces. Sirius followed him, keeping a few people in line between them. He heard Lucius call out "Diagon Alley," and hurried to do the same when his turn came.

Sirius stepped out of the fireplace just in time to see blond hair whipping out of the Leaky Cauldron's front door. Why would Malfoy be heading into Muggle London? Sirius wondered. Discreetly drawing his wand, Sirius followed, dropping a Disillusionment Charm on himself before stepping out the door.

Lucius walked a few blocks before suddenly turning down a side alley. Figuring he wouldn't get a better chance, Sirius rounded the corner with a Stunning Spell on his lips. An empty street greeted Sirius' eyes for a moment, before everything went dark.

OoOoOoOoO

Sirius awoke, chained to a chair, with the unpleasant sensation of Veritaserum coating his tongue and clouding his mind. He was supremely disinterested in his surroundings, but peripherally noted the presence of a host of people in the courtroom.

"What is your name?" a voice asked.

"Sirius Phineas Black, the Third." Sirius answered, monotonously.

"Are you a Death Eater?" the voice continued.

"No." Sirius responded.

"Have you passed information to the Death Eaters or the Dark Lord?"

"Yes." Sirius said. A small part of his brain began to feel worried.

"What information did you pass to the Death Eaters?"

"The location of a fake safe house. Several fake daily agendas for the Minister. Information that some Aurors were on-duty when they were out hurt or sick. Saying that Voldemort was a Muggle-born. Saying that my brother was a poofter…"

"Did you pass on any accurate information to the Death Eaters?"

"No."

"What information did you pass on to the Dark Lord?"

"His mother's chosen profession."

"What?" The voice sounded confused. "Clarify your statement."

"Told him that his mother was a whore when trying to distract him." Sirius' addled brain didn't prevent a faint smile crossing his lips. It fell away at the next question.

"Who was the Secret-Keeper for the Fidelius Charm over Lily and James Potter's house?"

"I… I don't know." Sirius' mind sluggishly objected. He thought that he should know that.

"Were you the Secret Keeper for the Fidelius Charm over Lily and James Potter's house?"

"I don't know."

"Could you have been obliviated of the knowledge?"

"Maybe."

"Were you involved in the planning of the casting of the Fidelius Charm over Lily and James Potter's house?"

"Er… yes."

"Who did Lily and James Potter pick as their Secret Keeper?"

"I don't know."

"Who did they plan to pick as their Secret Keeper?"

"Me… I think."

"Did you kill Peter Pettigrew?"

"Yes." That, at least, Sirius remembered. He had been in Muggle London. He saw Peter. Peter turned, looked back at Sirius, and gave him an evil smile.

"Why did you kill Peter Pettigrew?"

"I saw him… I was angry. He did… something…" Here Sirius was more confused. Peter had smiled. Sirius felt rage like he had never felt before. There was a reason. Something he couldn't remember. Traitor, his mind whispered, but the questioner was moving on.

"Did you kill Peter Pettigrew in full view of Muggles?"

"Yes."

"Did you target Muggles as well?"

"No."

"Did you kill Muggles too?"

"Yes. At least a couple were too close." He hadn't meant to kill them. He was just so angry. The Explosive Curse flew from his wand without him even thinking. Then there was pressure and pain. He had been knocked onto his back. He couldn't stop laughing. There was nothing funny about the situation, but he couldn't stop laughing. Then there were the pops of apparition around him and darkness claimed him once more.

A different voice spoke, "In light of the testimony of Sirius Black and Alastor Moody, and evidence provided by Black's wand and several Muggle eyewitness accounts, I call for a vote on the charges of thirteen counts of murder and a breach of the International Statute of Secrecy. Raise your hand to cast a guilty vote."

Malfoy looked around him, hiding his smugness under an indifferent mask. He did not raise his hand. There was no need.

"Sirius Black is found to be guilty," the Head of Magical Law Enforcement said, after noting a clear majority. "Raise your hand to cast a vote for a sentence of life in Azkaban."

Again, a sea of hands rose. Aurors stepped forward to bind Black and drag him to prison. Lucius sat back, pleased with the result. His mother-in-law and her sisters and cousins were long past child-bearing age. Andromeda was disowned. Bellatrix was a known Death Eater, and wouldn't be able to slip by the system the way he had. The remnants of the Black wealth and properties would pass on to his wife by default, and he barely had to lift his wand. A few memory charms, a tricky animation, and a couple of mood-altering charms were all it took. Black neutralized himself and took Pettigrew off of Lucius' hands too. Today was a good day.

OoOoOoOoO

Hagrid was spoon-feeding some porridge to a sleepy Harry in the Great Hall when the Headmaster entered with two Ministry workers. Leading them over to the seated pair, Dumbledore said, "I'm glad to see you and young Harry doing well, Rubeus. Did he have any problems last night?"

"Good mornin', Pr'fessor Dumbledore, sir. He on'y had a small cut on his head, an' tha's healed up fine. He's been a right angel so far."

"Good, I'm glad to hear it. These gentlemen are here to see Harry placed in a new home."

"Alrigh'. Jus' lemme say goodbye to 'im." The half-giant wiped the porridge off Harry's face with a gentleness that belied his size. Then, after giving the child a very scratchy kiss on the nose, Hagrid passed the boy over to the Magical Child Services representative.

"Thank you, Mr Hagrid. We'll be getting young Mr Potter to his next of kin now." The two wizards turned and left, the one holding Harry already waving a stuffed animal in front of the child to entertain him.

Dumbledore chose to take advantage of the small pause in his duties to break his day-long fast. Sitting next to the Groundskeeper, Dumbledore said, "Thank you for caring for Harry all night, Hagrid. I apologise for not arriving at the Potters' before you left."

"I'm jus' sorry I couldn' get there in time ter help Lily an' James," Hagrid replied, his face turning distraught. "Least they got tha' bastard in the end."

"Indeed," the older wizard said. "All we can do now is to try to clean up our society as best we can."

OoOoOoOoO

Alice looked up and smiled as the Healer entered her ward. Her leg bones were still regrowing and her right arm was encased in potion-soaked bandages to repair her skin. She was feeling a good amount of pins and needles from the Skele-Gro, but knew that she had gotten off lucky the previous night.

The healer stepped over to her bedside and said, "Let's see how you are doing today, Mrs Longbottom." The witch in green robes bent down to check the bandages, then held her wand over Alice's torso. Prepared for the uncomfortable feeling of a diagnostic charm, Alice was rather surprised when a red light impacted her chest. Then there was only darkness.

OoOoOoOoO

An hour later, Frank walked into his wife's room at St Mungo's, and smiled when he saw she was awake. "Hey, sweetie. How are you feeling today?" he asked.

"I'm alright," she replied. "What's the news?"

Frank chuckled at his wife's eagerness, before his visage turned serious. "Sirius was just sent to Azkaban. Seems like he gave the Potters up willingly, then killed Peter and a few Muggles." Frank sat down and his head sunk into his hands. "It seemed like he'd gotten someone to obliviate the knowledge from him, but they did a real sloppy job. Hmph, might have even tried a self-obliviate. It'd be the kind of thing he'd do."

Frank glanced up and caught the shocked look on his wife's face. "I know," he said, "I wouldn't have thought it either. But you know what they say, 'Blood will out.'"

"Yes," she responded, "I suppose it will."

Catching her odd tone, Frank looked closer at his wife's face. He missed seeing the wand in her hand that had been hidden under her loose bandages. A silent Stunner left Frank slumping over on to the hospital bed. Standing quickly, the witch grabbed him tightly and turned, apparating the both of them out of St Mungo's.

OoOoOoOoO

"What happened?" questioned the gruff voice of Alastor Moody. The woman on the bed looked up at the grizzled Auror and grimaced.

"I'm not sure," Healer McLaggen said. "I was just passing through the Cyprian Youdle Ward when I lost consciousness. I woke up twenty minutes ago, locked in an empty room, missing most of my clothes and my wand.

Moody turned to look at Auror Dawlish. "Someone wanted to impersonate a healer. Go grab an admin and get a list of all patients currently admitted. Note any that might be a target. And watch your back around Healers!" he called as the young Auror ran off.

Turning back to McLaggen, Moody continued, "We may as well start with your patients. Who were you in charge of?"

"I mostly handled the Youdle Ward, but had a couple patients outside of it. Inside were Samantha Winnows, George Ogden, Nobby Leach, and Hilliard Hobday. Outside were Molly Weasley and Alice Longbottom. Also, Abigail Vane in maternity."

"Leach?" Moody said, surprise colouring his tone. "Alright, Savage, Smith, you go to former Minister Leach. Franklin, you go to Weasley and Longbottom. Verify identities and tell them not to take any potions unless verified by two other Healers first. Tell them the situation and makes sure they're vigilant." The scarred Auror turned back towards Healer McLaggen and began a couple diagnostic charms to make sure she wasn't hurt, cursed, charmed, poisoned, potioned, or likely to explode.

A few minutes later, Auror Franklin ran back in and called out to Moody, "Alice Longbottom is gone. No sign of a struggle, but her room is empty. I locked it and put Smith on guard."

"Shite," Moody eloquently responded. "Get a forensic team from headquarters, and make sure that Ambali Mina is with them. I'll do a preliminary finding."

Moody moved as fast as he could to the fourth floor and entered Alice's room. He set up two silver reflexive foci in the far corners of the room. Ensuring that he included the bed in the triangle, he stood at the third point and initiated an Ostendo Praecantatio Reliquum ritual. The results weren't as strong as if there were three casters, but Moody was sufficiently powerful to do this on his own, and it would contaminate the scene less by having only one caster.

"Smith, take notes," Moody called out. "I see two stunners, two Disapparitions, a lot of potions I don't recognize, a small conjuration, some older diagnostic charms… oh, that's interesting – some Polyjuice as well. There may be some illusion magic too, but it's either older, or not cast within the ritual field."

"Yes, sir," Auror Smith responded. "When Mina gets here, I'll get her started on tracking the apparitions. If they side-alonged Alice after stunning her, it's likely that they only took one or two hops. We may get lucky, sir."

"Plan for the worst, son," Moody replied. "Call a second tracer here in case they split up. We'll catch them yet."

OoOoOoOoO

"Crucio."

"Stop! Please! We've told you everything we know!"

"You expect me to believe that a Mudblood whore killed the greatest wizard that ever lived? What did Dumbledore do? Tell me, or your bitch gets another taste."

"Dumbledore didn't do anything. He didn't even cast the Fidelius. Lily must have set a trap. That's what everyone's been say–"

"Crucio."

"Enough. Bellatrix, take watch from Barty. Fine then, Longbottom, what did 'Lily' do?"

"I-I-I don' know. W-we haven't talked t-to them in weeks."

"That's not what I want to hear. I want to hear everything you know about them. Otherwise I'm going to have to let Barty here do what he wants. And he's really repressed."

"They were under a F-Fidelius. They d-didn't ev-ven set up-p active defens-ses. They trusted S-S-Sirius w-with their Secret."

"Barty…"

"No! Don't c-c-curse him. I… m-maybe they had f-f-friends over. M-maybe they ambushed him. M-maybe Moody was there."

"Maybe? Maybe! I want answers, bitch! How could they kill my master? Where is his BODY? Crucio!"

"STOP! Please! Just s-s-stop."

"Seems like you really don't know, huh? Since Rodolphus got himself caught by Dumbledore, maybe we should let Barty get some practice in?"

"N-n-no we'll t-t-tell an'thing. P-p-please…"

"What else do you know then? If you don't tell me I can't stop them."

"I… I… hic… Dumb-b-bled-dore… hic… s-s-sug-gested the F-F-Fidelius… hic"

"You said that already. Barty…"

"I'll keeping watch. Bellatrix can handle them."

"Barty, are you being a little baby again? You faffed around enough about joining up. Now you won't take part? Get over here and curse her you fucking twat."

"Fine. Crucio."

"Rrrrgh…"

"You little Nancy boy. You have to mean it. You have to want it, to relish in their pain. Crucio."

"AAAAARRRRRGHH!"

"Crucio."

"What, Barty? Still having performance issues? Or do you like her too much to curse her? Would you rather do something else to her?"

"D-d-don't t-touch-ch h–"

"Crucio."

"Mmmrrrrrrnnnn…"

"I don't… I… Shut up, Bellatrix."

"Oh, right… you'd prefer him, wouldn't you? That's why your old man hates you. Well don't let me stop you. Crucio."

"Waaaaaaarrrrrrr…"

"Bellatrix! Fuck! Wards are up! We've got to go!"

"They found us? How?"

"Portus. Shit. Doesn't matter, run out the back."

"No! I can't get caught! Father would… he'd–"

"Shut up, Barty! Grab a hosta–"

Four Reductor Curses flew in the windows and impacted on three shields. Glass blanketed the floor as the door blew in and Stunners sprayed the room. The three Death Eaters formed a tight line, with Rabastan and Barty shielding, and Bellatrix in the middle, dealing out death.

The Aurors at the doorway fell back from the explosions and shielded themselves from the shrapnel. Bellatrix swished her wand and animated some of the glass to run around the corner at the Aurors and explode.

Suddenly, a purple flame erupted from nowhere, bisected the witch's wand, and sliced her arm to the bone. Barty turned towards the source of the spell, but a hunk of banished glass embedded itself in his back before exploding. Rabastan dove towards Alice and tried to pull her still-spasming body over his. He was dropped by four stunners, while two more took down Bellatrix. Barty Crouch Jr was shortly put out of his pain-filled state of consciousness as well.

Moody verified the lack of further hostiles with a Homenum Revelio, before dropping his Disillusionment. He grimaced, looking at the bloody scene. Directing two of his Aurors to get the Longbottoms back to St Mungo's, he started the unpleasant task of giving medical aid to the Death Eaters.

OoOoOoOoO

"Isn't there someone else who can do it?" Vernon demanded. "I don't want you involved in that world!"

"There isn't anyone left, Vernon." Petunia responded soothingly. "Their kid's godfather is in prison, godmother is in a coma, their wills' executor has disappeared, and their last close friend is dead. Like it or not, I'm Lily's only family, and there's no one on her husband's side. I'm the only one who can take him."

"Can't their government," Vernon spat the word, "just handle it all?"

"Probably…" Petunia said, thinking it over. "But they'd take a chunk of the estate for sure. This way, we get some control over where everything goes. I think I remember my civics lecturer saying that anything willed to dead people or unclaimed after some amount of time may be at the discretion of the executor to disperse."

The thought of a potential influx of cash gave Vernon pause, and he sunk into an arm chair. "And the boy?" he asked.

"Well, he'll inherit the bulk, of course. But I'd think that a stipend would be set up for his care. It would go to his guardians, obviously." Petunia watched her husband warily to see his reaction.

Vernon sighed heavily. "Fine. Contact someone from their side – a lawyer if they have such people – to help track down the people you need. Tell them we'll take the boy." Vernon paused for a moment, and then said in a softer tone, "I know you didn't get along with your sister, but if you want to visit her grave or something, we can."

Petunia sent her husband a small smile and kissed him on the cheek before heading to the phone. At least for wills and such, their world worked with the real government, and Petunia could just call them. She shuddered at the thought of having to do all this with owls.

---

A/N: Ostendo Praecantatio Reliquum – show magic residue

I know that Petunia's claims regarding wills are likely completely wrong. Note that this is just something she thinks she remembers from a lecture a while ago, so it is not necessarily accurate.

In my vision of this world, questioning of suspects is usually done prior to the trial, and Veritaserum isn't normally used in the courtroom at all. Recall that many people were freed from the Imperious after Voldemort died, and that several Death Eaters gave up names for reduced sentences. I'd imagine that there would be a lot of trials in quick succession. With many of the Aurors tied up in patrolling, guarding, capturing, and cleaning up, there wouldn't be many around to conduct the questionings. So they might convene a special war-crimes Wizengamot session that handles questioning, convicting, and sentencing all in one go.