Justice
"What are you doing now?" asked Harry. Thomas just said something in baby talk and returned to throwing his food around the room. Harry shook his head at the mess, flicked his wand to clear the mess away and was happy that he was able to it. The investigation into who had deliberately infected the twins was ongoing, and Harry was looking forward to questioning the architect of the whole operation. He would let them live, but he thought they most likely would not be able to play much more of a role in the human race. The Veritaserum potion was being made in the Chamber of Secrets and it was hoped it could be finished by the end of the month.
"What do you think of Hufflepuff's chances against Slytherin?" asked Hannah.
"I think it will be a fair game" said Harry, going back to his chat with Hannah, Susan and Luna. "If it was Gryffindor, however, we'd cream them"
"Yeah! Right!" Susan said in defence of her house.
"The twins are going to look so cute in their Quiddi-" Luna was cut off by the appearance of an elf.
"An Owl delivered this to you" the elf handed over a small piece of folded parchment.
"Wait here a moment" Harry commanded. He was certain that the elf was one he had seen in the Kitchens a few years previous. "I may need you to take a message to somebody else"
"Yes, Master"
"I am not your Master" Harry reminded it. Other elves at Hogwarts kept referring to Harry as their Master, and it both amused and annoyed him. He knew that Dobby was always prone to calling him by that title, but that elf was one plane short of a squadron.
"What does it say?" asked Luna.
"That we're going on a little Field Trip to the Ministry" Harry replied, showing them the one sentence written on the parchment – dead centre.
The woman that has caused you stink, is the toad like bitch all dressed in pink
"Who is that supposed to mean?" Luna asked.
"Umbridge" said Susan darkly. "As Senior Undersecretary, she would have the needed clearance level to get access to the virus. I should have thought of her before"
"We all should have thought of her" Harry replied. "Elf, I want you to go and friend my friends and tell them that they are needed to come here as soon as they can. If they are in lessons, just place a note in front of them" and the elf nodded and vanished quickly to carry out the task.
"What are we going to do?" asked Hannah.
"Have a word with her" Harry said. "The potion should be ready by the end of the week, and we'll go and have a quiet chat with our beloved former DADA professor"
"And would that talk involve that metal wand of yours?" asked Luna.
"No" Harry replied, "But I might as well take the sword with me. If she thinks I am going to kill her, she might just tell me everything we need to know. We'll have to find out where she lives though and then arrange for her to be at her home"
"We're not going to really kill her though, are we?" asked Susan.
"No" Harry replied, "But I have every right to challenge her to a duel to the death. We'll dose her with truth potion and record all of the details with an evidential Pensieve. Then we take her to the Ministry and give them the evidence – they can deal with her"
"And if they do not?" asked Hannah.
"Then she has only 168 hours left to live at the minimum" Harry said darkly. "I'm fed up of always having to do things by the book and letting people get away by claiming they were under the influence of potions or compulsion charms. That, you three, is how we got into the second war in the first place. Anybody coming to attack me or my family will get my justice" but, after the others had gone, he looked at the handwriting and realised that he knew who had sent the note. Why it had not been hand delivered he wasn't sure on, but at least he knew who had sent it…
# # # # #
By the end of the week, and several hours into the past later, Harry returned to Hogsmeade with a great many number of answers. Umbridge had proved to have given Harry some interesting pieces of information, and he had removed all traces of his prying inside her mind before returning.
"So Dumbledore was the one that ordered the attacks?" Hannah frowned.
"But he is in jail" said Susan. "We all saw or heard it – he is in maximum security jail at the ICW facility"
"According to what I learned from Umbridge, Dumbledore has been able to get letters out by bribing some of the guards" Harry said. "He was able to persuade Umbridge to organise the germ attack on the twins and, after they had died, fabricate evidence to prove Dumbledore innocent of everything and order compensation to be paid. He would save the children only if I handed them over to Hermione's parents"
"Fuck that for a game of soldiers" said Lavender.
"I'm not a Gryffindor" said Padma slowly and carefully, "But I say that the best plan is for us to mount up and take them out"
"Sounds good to me" agreed Daphne.
"But we need evidence" said Parvati. "And I am willing to bet that the stuff we need is in the Granger house and is protected by charms"
"I didn't detect any the last time I was there" Harry said, "But maybe they were not installed back then… I'm not going to worry about them unless they pose a serious threat to me or the kids – lets just get the evidence we need and then call a meeting of the Wizendgamot" he looked over to where Luna was sitting with a Gillyweed. "You able to put in a call to She-Who-Is-Damned-Beautiful-For-Her-Age?" he asked.
"Of course" said Luna. "Of course, Harry, she'll be the one to choose a date"
"Impress on her that it has to be soon" Harry reminded her. "It would be good if she could pull it off at little to no notice" he added with a grin.
"I will ask her" Luna assured him.
"What will you ask for when you are proven to be correct?" asked Dean.
"I will demand the body of Albus Dumbledore for execution by whatever means I so wish" Harry replied darkly.
"Can we watch?" asked Daphne. "I know a great spell for popcorn that would be handy"
"Sure" said Harry. "I was going to have him killed by running him up a rope tied to Gryffindor tower"
"I'll start making tickets" said Seamus.
# # # # #
"I don't know what is going on here" said one person. "Potter lets it be well known that he doesn't want anything to do with us, rejects all calls for meetings and yet calls one with no more than half an hour's notice"
"Fudge has no idea what is going on" said a second. "Look at him talking with the Heads of Department… They look as confused as we are!"
"What I would like to know is why the Aurors are in full dress uniforms" said a third person – this time a witch. "If it isn't for Fudge or the Chief Warlock, then who the hell can it be?" she asked.
"Something is happening" said the first person – pointing to the increased activity at the doors to the council chamber. The Aurors came to attention and saluted a woman who, despite being slightly elderly, carried power and grace to an exacting standard. She made her way to where the Chief Warlock or Chief Witch sat and spoke to the occupant.
"I believe you are sitting in my seat, young man" she said.
"I don't believe so" said the middle aged wizard.
"This is my country, ergo, my seat" the woman flicked her wrist and unseated the man rather fast – taking his place smoothly. "How terribly uncouth" said the woman – clearly shown to be a witch of some talent.
"Sorry, Your Majesty" Harry said. "Some magical folk do not know your face"
"The Queen?" said the second person with an arched eyebrow. "What is he going to do for an encore? Bring on God?"
"You spoke?" the third person pointed out a man in long white robes and a long beard entering.
"I picked a hell of a day to quit drinking" the second person said.
"My Lords, pray be seated" the Queen said, and the assembled members sat in their seats. Fudge and the department heads took places below and in front of the Queen whilst Harry and the group sat in front of the Queen facing the assembled members of the Wizangamot. "It has been a number of years since I last held council with you, but I believe that that time is at an end. I called you all here this day to discuss a grave matter of importance – a matter that very few seem to be inclined to take care of" the Queen gestured at Harry and the others. "These few persons before me have brought to my attention a most heinous plan of magnitudes not seen since the days of the Second World War. Lord Potter, would you care to explain?"
"Ma'am" Harry nodded to the Queen before turning round again to face the members of the Wizendgamot. "Some time ago, my children became ill. As a matter of routine, I took them to Poppy Pomfrey, Healer and School Nurse at Hogwarts. She determined that both had the most potent strain of Dragon Flu – but the strain that was kept under heavy guard for use in researching a permanent cure for it. Only a select few have a clearance level high enough to get hold of it, so my friends and I went about doing a spot of investigating. This was done in the highest secrecy as we did not know how high the plot could have gone to. After interrogating a number of suspects, we discovered that somebody had been getting letters from Albus Dumbledore offering great power in exchange for doing his bidding" Harry sipped at the water in the glass before him. "I am sure you know I could keep this up for hours, but suffice to say that the person who got the Dragon Flu strain was one Senior Undersecretary Delores Jane Umbridge!"
"That is absurd" said Umbridge, getting to her feet quickly. "Why would I want to do anything towards you and your children?"
"Perhaps this might help to… heh… refresh your memory, so to speak" the Queen spoke, tapping the projection Pensieve so that it displayed the recording of Harry questioning her some time previous.
"I… I don't understand" Fudge gawped like an idiot.
"That is faked, Minister!" Umbridge screeched. "He has it in for me ever since I used a Blood Quill on him when I was there"
"You dumb, dumb, dumb piece of crap" Dean chuckled.
"How dare you speak to me like that!" Umbridge took her wand out. "You half blooded black bastard nig–!" she started to withdraw her wand, but half a dozen stunning spells took her down.
"Take her to the most secure cells in this place and lock her up in there" Harry ordered, circumventing the normal chain of command.
"Bones!" the Queen called.
"Yes?" replied Susan and her Aunt at the same time.
"I only want your Aunt, my dear" the Queen smiled to Susan. "Madam Bones, you will conduct a complete examination of this woman's office – as well as any other place of work she bases herself from. I want a full report by the end of tomorrow. Lord Potter, the floor"
"Thank you" Harry nodded. "Whilst we are all here, I thought I would let you know that, for the time being, the Wizendgamot is suspended until further notice. It is clear that some of you knew and gave help to Dumbledore before he made his offer to Umbridge, so there shall be no more meetings until we can prove that the corruption is gone from this once great body. We shall also find out if any of you helped the plot to harm my children"
"I protest!" said a man, rising to his feet and taking out his wand slowly. "I, Adolph Hitler Hussein do call challenge on you to the death"
"Sit down" Harry shook his head. Hussein didn't do that and cast the Killing Curse at Harry. In reply, he cast a shield that took the impact, dissipated it before vanishing to allow Harry a chance to reply. "Imperio. Hand over your wand to the woman sitting next to you. Now, my friend, you will walk to the cells and place yourself in there, locking yourself in and pushing the key out. You will then go to sleep and wake up after twenty minutes with no lasting effects of this spell. Go!" he looked at the others. "Anyone else want to try and attack me?" but nobody did.
#
"Lord Potter, would you care to join me and my family for dinner next week?" asked the Queen as they sat in Fudge's commandeered office. "I will also give you rewards that you so richly deserve"
"I would give it all back, your Majesty, to have my wife back"
"Yes… Yes, of course… I would consider it a great honour to dine with you, Mr Potter. You have saved my life and my kingdom on numerous occasions, and I think it only fitting that you be rewarded then"
"I will bring my children with me, your Majesty" said Harry.
"Children?"
"They come with me almost all the time now" Harry said to her, his voice tinged with sadness. "They are the only part of Hermione I have left now. They come as part of the same deal as my friends"
"Making demands to me?" the Queen asked half joking.
"If I am to be honoured, Ma'am, then it is only fitting that they are also. They are not just people I know. They are not just people I go to school with. They are my comrades in arms. Most of us stood together in combat; they are my friends as well as my family. Well… Susan not so much"
"Hey!"
"Susan, in the middle of fighting down the ground floor corridors, you stopped for coffee and doughnuts"
"So?"
"Mr Potter, it is traditional with these things to also give a small gift to show how grateful and pleased we are. What is it you want?" the Queen asked. Harry thought about it for almost two minutes before drawing himself up to his full height and replying.
"An aircraft carrier"
"Mr Potter, that may take some time to wrap up. Which one do you want?" the Queen had not been expecting his reply to be quite that big.
"Well it isn't one that belongs to us any more" Harry shrugged and explained what he meant.
# # # # #
"You four will stand" the Queen said later that month. "Now I, Queen Elizabeth the Second, Ruler of the United Kingdom and its territories wherever they may be, do now pass sentence on you for your most heinous crimes of biological warfare. All four of you have been found guilty of conspiracy to commit or the act of committing the deliberate poisoning of Thomas and Cassiopeia Potter with the intent of murder. It is my decision that three of you be taken from this place and, at the time of 8 o'clock tomorrow, be hanged by the neck until such time as you are dead. Aurors! Escort these three to Hogwarts for holding. As for you, Delores Jane Umbridge, Lord Potter has argued that execution is a death that would be a much too kind a death for you to suffer. He has instead come up with something rather fitting. Lord Potter?"
"Ma'am" Harry took out his wand and hit Umbridge with both a Compulsion Charm and the Imperious Curse. "You will walk to the desk in front of you, sit down and write, using the Blood Quill provided, 'I will not harm Harry Potter, his family or his friends' until such point as you bleed to death or I decide to kill you" Harry smirked and then watched as Umbridge walked over, sat at the desk and wrote the lines – the words appearing on her hands as well as on the parchment.
"Mr Potter, I fear that grief and hurt is clouding your judgement" Bones said.
"No, Madam Bones, I fear it has been lifted from me. I will do anything to keep my family safe, and this is what she did to me for the year she taught at Hogwarts. All you would have done was chuck her in jail for a few years – not any more…"
"You will pay for this you half blooded bast-" Harry cut Umbridge off by leaning close to one ear and whispering gently.
"You will work" he said, mocking Umbridge's own tone towards the pupils when she had taught at the school and chuckling darkly, "In complete silence"
# # # # #
To the surprise of many, Harry became more and more depressed as the weeks passed by. His attitude was just the correct side of standards, he normally delegated Quidditch practices to others and spent a lot of his time in the suite with the twins – watching them crawl around in the playpen. After some effort, the friends found that it was getting up to the anniversary of his marriage to Hermione and that his nightmares had started again. His attitude change was the result of the dangerous mixture of potions and drink which, he claimed, helped a tiny bit to put his demons at bay for one night a week. McGonagall did not give him any punishments for two very simple reasons. The first was that he was of age and his drinking was never during school times. The second was that nobody had been so far able to help Harry to build a wall around the dark thoughts he harboured over Hermione's death. The only three people he trusted to enter his mind and not remove any information were Luna, Susan and Hannah. Whilst Luna and Susan had gifts in the Mind Arts which Harry had known about for some time, Hannah had shown some promise and Susan had asked Harry's permission to bring her along so she could see what they did.
"Do you believe in heaven?" asked Harry.
"I don't disbelieve in it" Susan blinked. Harry, she knew, was not prone to talking about religion all that much, so the question was odd coming from him. "I believe that there is some kind of afterlife" she added.
"Do you expect to go to heaven and see all of your family that you have lost over the years?" Harry said, looking out of the window.
"That is the supposed theory" Susan replied. "You thinking about how long you have left to see Hermione again?" and Harry froze before nodding sadly.
"At least a century and a half" he sighed. "Damn it, Sue… I should have been there. I should have died instead of her! It wasn't mattering much if I died or not – keeping Hermione safe was the only thing I cared about"
"Hermione would have sent you right back into battle" Hannah spoke gently.
"Yes…" Harry smiled fondly, "I would have thought that myself. My wife was always… heh… stubborn at times"
"Don't take this the wrong way or anything" Hannah continued, "But have you ever thought about dating? I know you want to honour Hermione, and I respect that sentiment, but it will not always do to stay single"
"Who wants to date somebody with baggage like I do?" Harry snorted. "According to Lavender, a lot of the girls keep asking her and the Patils if they can date the Boy-Who-Lived. 'The Boy-Who-Lived'…" he shook his head. "They want to date some kind of hero – not Harry Potter. Nobody wants to date me for who I am, merely for who I am"
"Give it time" Susan advised.
"That is what Dumbledork always said" Harry pointed out. "The only girls that are close to me are you two, the Patil twins, Lavender, Luna and Daphne. And two from that list are not an option"
"Who?" asked Susan and Hannah at the same time.
"Daphne and Luna" Harry replied. "Daphne is in an incestuous relationship with her own sister"
"What about Luna?" asked Susan.
"Luna is in a relationship"
"Who with?"
"Buckbeak"
"Buckbeak? I don't recall anybody called Buckbeak at Hog-"
"He's a Hippogriff" and the reactions of both girls were well worth watching. "Why do you think she walks around with a limp some days?"
"What- What about others?" Susan tried to keep her lunch down.
"Ohhhhhh It is too soon, Susan" Harry said. "Besides… I have a whole load of things to get through before I am ready to start something with another girl" and the evening passed on.
#
"Do you really think that I should meet another girl, Mione?" Harry looked up at the stars that night.
"That is up to you"
"That isn't an answer" said Harry.
"If you didn't want that as an answer, then why did you put the question forward in the first place?"
"Go away" Harry said. "Buzz off…"
"Alright" came the reply, "I think I shall" and Harry's expression became one of panic.
"WAIT…! Come back!" he cried out. "Please come back!" his agonising cries ran through the suite and echoed off the walls. "DON'T LEAVE MEEEEEEE!" he begged and Harry collapsed to the ground – sobbing and braying until he could do so no longer.
A/N:
Thanks for the reviews for Chapter 6 – they made us smile.
First things first, we hereby award the Pixel And Stephanie Long Service Medal to wulfler for his review – he is the longest serving reviewer of our works.
Now then…
A number of references in the previous chapter which I will now list:
At some point in history, Luna's family went to war with the Smurfs, good ol' Nicky Flammel made friends with Batman, the Doctor was being chased by a Dalek into the TARDIS, a certain Vulcan was working at Hogwarts as the Potions Teacher and Mary Poppins was a crazy Witch that worked in the Muggle world.
Also, Daphne's comment of knowing a great spell for Popcorn refers to a chapter in the first part of the trilogy.
There's an update in the One Shots – the result of us having a few beers and watching old episodes of Robot Wars.
Well…
Looking forward To Your Reviews,
Stephanie
