There's been a change at the end of the last chapter, sorry. Instead of them walking out when the titles and votes for the seats were read out by the clerk, the chamber was sealed and they moved straight into the trial for those who had abused Millie.
NB: After some of the responses I got in Heritage I think I need to clarify this up front, the primary purpose of the betrothal contracts here is to protect the girls from being forced into betrothals with other, less savoury, characters with evil intentions. These contracts can be cancelled if the girls find someone else they want to be with or the need for protection is gone, so multiple betrothals do not mean that Harry has a harem. The reason the girls were in his bed was to comfort them and he's only just turned twelve, so he wasn't doing anything more than hugging and kissing in this period. Harry, Neville and Draco will probably have two wives later, but that's years away at this point.
Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.
One thing was immediately clear to just about everyone in the Wizengamot, nearly all of the accused were Purebloods, and most of them had known Death Eater connections. The first thing that Madam Bones did was to show an overview of a young girl's memories of what had been done to her over a period from when she was around six or seven, through until a month or so previously when she was around twelve.
The galleries and most of the Wizengamot seats had to be silenced when the uproar from them grew too loud. Due to the limited birth rates in Magical Britain, children were generally cherished and protected, so seeing these acts of abuse against this child caused cries of horror and outrage, all the more so because the voices and faces of most of the abusers were well known, and the child was not only the heiress to a Noble and Ancient House, she had just been accepted as being the Head of a Most Ancient House that was near the top of the hierarchy of Magical Britain.
When Madam Bones started questioning the accused and they refused to answer, Frank Longbottom immediately called for the ruling that prevented Purebloods from being forcibly questioned under Veritaserum to be abolished. Sirius seconded the motion and with so many Pureblood votes currently voided due to the fact that they were the accused, the family had no trouble carrying the vote. With that passed and the Veritaserum administered, the answers from the accused became much more interesting, and incriminating.
They put up wards to prevent Millie and the gallery seeing or hearing most of what was going on quite early in the piece to protect Millie and prevent a riot. Having Dumbledore tied up in his own private dramas gave Amelia a free hand to extract proof of the Death Eaters' other activities and connections, which in turn meant that she was sending her trusted Aurors out to bring other named Death Eaters and their supporters in to be tried as well.
The trial ran well into the night, and in the end sixty to seventy accused had been tried. The first part was the abuse against Millie and those who had been behind the plot to force her to be possessed and used by Tom Riddle to open the Chamber of Secrets, attack the Muggleborn at Hogwarts and regain the ability to act on his own. The accused were questioned, and the convictions and reparations were determined. All of the titles, holdings, seats and fortunes of the Houses of Bulstrode, Flint and Slughorn were successfully claimed for Millie as the House of Biróg, and varying percentages of the titles, holdings and fortunes of the houses of the other accused were taken as well.
As a result, the now Noble and Most Ancient House of Biróg became one of the richest and most powerful houses in Magical Britain that day, and they forced the dissolution of the Houses of Bulstrode, Flint and Slughorn as well, so they ceased to exist. Millie's father, Horace Slughorn and the Head of the House of Flint all went through the Veil of Death for their actions and two dozen more went to Azkaban for terms of up to life. Over a dozen of the younger perpetrators were stripped of their magic, obliviated and dumped in the Muggle world as they were deemed too young to be convicted as adults for their actions.
After that, the DMLE questioned the other Death Eaters identified under Veritaserum and they were convicted on the basis of their testimonies. Of the others charged for unrelated Death Eater related activities, a dozen went through the Veil of Death, and a dozen more went to Azkaban for up to life. The remainder were fined and put on watch lists for their actions.
The Purebloods and the Minister for Magic were panicking by the end of this session, because over a third of the seats in the Wizengamot (all of them Pureblood) had been vacated or left without anyone in a position to control their votes, and many of the Senior positions in the Ministry of Magic had also been vacated. What was more important as far as the Minister for Magic was concerned was the fact that he had lost all of his primary backers and most of the others as well, so he no longer had access to the funds he used to buy votes or buy himself out of trouble, his world was falling apart.
This Wizengamot session had also put through new rulings that had dashed the Minister's burgeoning hopes of getting his hands on the sudden influx of moneys claimed from the convicted Death Eaters' vaults. These rulings had implemented restrictions on what the claimed moneys could be used for and strict reporting requirements as well. This meant that the goblins would be reporting directly to the Wizengamot about exactly where any of that money went without anyone at the Ministry being able to cover anything up. At least Fudge had had the satisfaction of seeing Dumbledore reacting to the comment about how the idea behind this had come from controls implemented in the past year by the Hogwarts board to address the money issues at Hogwarts.
Another thing that many were worried about was that no-one could remember anything about the abuse victim. Before the end of the session, everything about the abuse victim and what had come to her had been put under a fidelius charm, so she ceased to exist to most people. Millicent Bulstrode was forgotten, and Countess Millicent Biróg, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Biróg was to be a new starter in the Nobles Fourth year group at Hogwarts after the summer break.
Millie had quite a way to go before she would be free of what she'd endured in her past, but she was getting help and comfort to deal with that, those who had wronged her had been punished, and she was starting a new life where she would never again have to endure that type of treatment again, so her life was heading in a better direction. She would be doing all of her Third year end of year exams over the summer break as Millicent Biróg, so she would officially be coming in as a new starter at Hogwarts.
While the humans had been having fun turning their world upside down, the Goblin Nation had been processing what was in the Chamber of Secrets. About a week after they killed the basilisk and kicked Riddle out again, the Potter elves took Gringott and a team of curse breakers and other experts to value whatever they were supposed to process and sell in the chamber. As well as the family, Harry took Fawkes along, just in case the basilisk he'd killed hadn't been the only thing that Salazar Slytherin left down there.
Gringott and the other goblins embarrassed themselves by jumping when they saw the basilisk Harry killed, because even though some of them had seen the memory, seeing it in the flesh was still a shock. They searched the chamber proper, but aside from the basilisk, the shed skin from the tunnel and the snake columns and friezes that they'd remove and sell off, there was nothing else out there. That left what was behind the bust of Slytherin.
It was a given that Salazar Slytherin wouldn't have been climbing in and out through the opening that the basilisk had used, and the goblins didn't take long to discover what appeared to be another, more civilised portal in the bust. The curse breakers confirmed that they couldn't find any curses or other traps around it, so once everyone indicated that they were ready, Harry called out in parseltongue to open the portal.
Fawkes went in first, and she let Harry know that it seemed to be safe in there, so they cautiously entered the chambers behind the bust, carefully scanning for traps, dark magic and anything living as they went. The chambers on that level were fit for a king, but were more comfortable and elegant than would have been expected for the middle ages. When they found nothing dangerous on that level, their eyes were drawn to the stairs down to the lower levels, where they knew the basilisk's lair to be.
Some of them stayed and searched on that level while the others cautiously headed down the stairs. The next level down had what were presumably chambers for students or apprentices, along with storerooms and potions labs. When they were satisfied that there was nothing to fear on that level, they headed down again, and when they reached the floor below and opened the door into the basilisk's chamber, the fearless Gringotts warriors and code breakers who were in front cried out and jumped back in fright.
The sight that caused this was the dozens of cast off skins, ranging from about ten feet to over seventy feet in length, that almost filled the chamber, because the flickering green torchlight made it appear as though they were moving. While their brothers in arms taunted them for this, they had to concede that the sight unnerved them as well, even knowing just what it was they were seeing.
Of course, their eyes gleamed as they estimated the value of this much basilisk skin as well because even though the old skins were worth a pittance compared to the basilisk carcass in the chamber proper, even the smallest thousand year old skins were worth a small fortune by most's standards. They were already planning on how to slowly release the basilisk parts onto the market to avoid driving the prices down. What was rendered from the carcass would be released first, and then the skins, on the basis of newest to oldest. Even with the tiny percentage that they knew the Head Goblin would allow them to take from the proceeds, the goblin nation and those involved would be earning a fortune from this.
The skins also highlighted another matter that required clarification, because for the basilisk to have continued to grow and leave those skins, it must have been eating, and going by the bones in the tunnel, it must have somehow been getting out to hunt at times, up until the access tunnels had collapsed anyway. Those who had been in the original party looked ill as they realised that the muck that they'd been walking through in the tunnel to get to and from the chamber was actually centuries of basilisk crap.
Once they'd confirmed that there was no threat in the basilisk's chamber, a team was left there to catalogue the skins while the others went up to investigate the levels above the one they came in at. These levels appeared to hold the chambers for Slytherin family members, and the master's chambers. The highlight of this was Salazar Slytherin's private library in the master's chambers, because it held many priceless tomes that had been lost for centuries. Of particular interest to Harry were the many tomes and journals which were recorded in a strange variation of ogham script and runes that was apparently only readable by parselmouths. This was because they gave a record of a separate branch of powerful magic that only parselmouths could use, and Salazar had also used this language for his journals in an attempt to ensure that no-one but his heirs would be able to read them.
While they were going through Salazar's library, and the general library on the main level, they were called back down to the basilisk's chamber, because the goblins cataloguing the skins had found something else behind them, doors to vaults that the basilisk must have been guarding. Like everything else to do with Salazar's Chamber, these vault doors required a parselmouth to open them, and when Harry did, they found ten times the wealth that had been in the Slytherin vaults in Gringotts.
The contents of the chamber vaults were catalogued and transferred to the Slytherin vaults in Gringotts, as were some of the rare and priceless tapestries and the like from the chambers above. As well as being protected by the Goblin Nation there, the money could be added to the investments they were making on behalf of the family and increase what they had available for what they needed to do. The contents of both Salazar's and the general library and some of the other items from the chambers were transferred to Potter Manor, and the goblins were investigating the market for the remainder of the items in the chamber, any items that could realise good money would be sold, while the rest would probably remain. There was also a question as to what to do with the chamber itself once this was done, as there was great value in an impregnably warded chamber which was magically maintained and could only be reached by those allowed, so they were having discussions on that matter.
The group all did well in their Third year end of year exams, and Tracey Davis' results were in the top ten for the First year students. They knew that Millie would easily pass her Third Year exams before the end of the Summer break, and they were banking on getting Tracey and Daphne's little sister Astoria up to the point where they could pass their Second year end of year exams by then as well, so the two of them could go into Third year as the rest of them went into Fourth year. The plan was for all sixteen of them to be doing their OWLs together at the end of that year.
Once they had the controlling vote in the Wizengamot, they had had Dumbledore's laws forcing students to go to Hogwarts after they turned eleven and start in Year one repealed, so as long as she could show that she had the requisite knowledge of the subjects, Astoria could start in higher years. Like Hermione, Daphne and Millie had before they started at Hogwarts, Astoria already knew enough to pass most of the First year exams through her own studies, so they had few doubts about her qualifying to start in Third year.
The reason Tracey and Astoria had been added into the group was an urgent notice from Gringott that Cyrus Greengrass, Daphne and Astoria's father, had replaced Daphne with Astoria as his heir after Daphne had been accepted as the Head of the Most Ancient House of Bodhmall. He had then used their elevated status to try and rush through betrothal contracts with quite hefty bride prices for both girls. Seeing what he was trying to marry them off to at twelve and ten enraged and horrified the family, so with Daphne's agreement, they quickly accepted the betrothal contracts that he had already offered to Harry for the two girls, using ancient rituals to bend time enough to ensure that they were shown to have been magically accepted for Harry by the Houses of Peverell and Ravenclaw before the new betrothal contracts were lodged.
They also made up and lodged documents under the same processes to establish the 'traditional' caveats for any marriages into any of the reinstated Noble and Most Ancient Houses which stated that the Most Ancient Houses would take over as the girls' magical guardians and oversee the girls' upbringing until they were married to ensure that they were raised with the proper values. The fact that the dates on the documents were taken as the dates of the rulings had Gringott grinning in anticipation of Greengrass or anyone else trying to challenge this.
Even if it had been possible to question the integrity of the goblins without starting a war (which was most unlikely), with aging spells and the like there was no way of definitively proving whether the scroll had been created a thousand years ago, or a few days ago, so these caveats had to be accepted as the established and applicable rules to marry into these Houses. Cyrus' arguments that he had not been made aware of these rules and that the betrothal contracts had been offered as either of his daughters to Duke Potter were dismissed with the response that it was the applicant's responsibility to appraise themselves of the rules of the house that they wished to link their house to, nowhere did the contracts offered stipulate that both could not be accepted and the Duke had the right to accept the betrothals under any of his titles.
The agreed, and much lower, bride prices for these betrothal contracts had been automatically transferred as at the day and time the contracts were magically accepted, so when Cyrus attempted to lodge the new betrothal contracts for the girls, they had been rejected as Daphne was already betrothed to Duke Peverell and Astoria was already betrothed to Earl Ravenclaw at that point. Cyrus was enraged to have lost the hefty bride prices he'd managed to negotiate for his daughters, and the reparations that he had to offer for having bilked two more powerful traditional Pureblood families after pushing so hard for the betrothals cost him even more.
Finding out about these standard caveats when Angela, Sirius, Remus and Severus arrived with Daphne, goblin guards and house elves to pack the girls' things up and collect Astoria almost pushed Cyrus over the edge. They greatly enjoyed advising Cyrus and his legal representation that these caveats had applied to the respective houses for nearly a thousand years.
By this stage, Cyrus was ruined, because he'd also lost any hope of being able to deliver on the promises he'd made to the senior Death Eaters that getting one of his daughters married to Harry Potter would guarantee them a path to information and control of Harry Potter, and he no longer had any way of returning the investments they'd made with the House of Greengrass for those promises after he'd lost so much once all those titles, holdings and the earnings from them had been reclaimed by the original Ruling Houses. The only thing Cyrus could do to keep his life was to agree to do anything the Death Eaters told him to, because offering his wife would do little to assuage his debt to them. While still a beauty, Kallisto Greengrass would refuse most of them outright as the proud daughter of a powerful Noble and Ancient House and attempting to force her to do anything against her will would most likely to ensue in a blood feud between her father's House and anyone involved.
The thing was, while Daphne and Astoria's upbringing had been nothing like the horror Millie went through, the Greengrass family moved in similar circles as the Bulstrodes, so many of the families they dealt with were rather unsavoury, and the stories about the older men that the girls had been offered to had been bad enough to be certain that those marriages would have been rather abusive, and worse than their joyless upbringing under the strict control of their uncaring parents. So, taking both of them away from their parents was really the only way to give them a chance for a safe and happy life, and if they found someone that they wanted to be with later, the caveats on the betrothal contracts meant that the Heads of the Most Ancient Houses they were contracted to had become their magical guardians, so those betrothal contracts could easily be cancelled and new ones made with their chosen partners.
While they were dealing with Pureblood betrothal politics, they discussed the protections offered with the rest of the girls and their parents. Angela only had to point out how much better protected Hermione, as a Muggleborn witch, would be if she were betrothed to the Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter for Hermione to agree that it made sense, and she liked the idea of being betrothed to Harry anyway, so as Angela was her magical guardian it was a simple matter to get that betrothal contract registered. They left her parents out of this process as Hermione couldn't spare the time to deal with them at the moment. Tracey's parents were no fools, they knew that there was little they could do to protect their daughter if one of the powerful houses decided to claim her. Tracey understood this as well, so when they were asked whether they wanted to protect Tracey with a betrothal contract to Harry they agreed, and she became betrothed to Earl Slytherin. The discussion with Luna and Xeno was similar, except that Luna made the choice to become betrothed to the Heir to the Noble and Ancient House of Longbottom and Xeno just agreed and signed the contact.
With Padma's agreement, Sirius accepted the contract that had been offered by her father for her betrothal to Draco, and they also got betrothal contracts signed between Fred and Angelina and George and Katie, so that just about all of the girls were protected against their families agreeing to betrothal contracts for them (willingly or otherwise) as the Houses of their betrothed were strong enough to withstand any challenges to their betrothals. It was agreed that the Houses of Bones and Biróg were strong enough that Susie and Millie shouldn't need betrothal contracts to be safe, but they had ones for Susie and Nev and Millie and Draco, ready to be used if necessary. Of course, the fact that half of the newly betrothed couples had enough attachment to each other to make strong marriages in the future a distinct possibility simplified the process quite a bit.
Over the summer break, they discovered that Dumbledore was obviously still following through on whatever plans he had for Harry and their world. Given that Minerva, Sirius, the twins, Angie, Katie and Lee were quidditch mad, and the rest of them enjoyed it, Sirius had reserved a large box for the family at the same level as the Ministry's box at the World Cup match. Their 'camp site' was made up of a cluster of magical tents to accommodate the numbers they had.
At the match itself, Fudge was incensed to see the Director of the DMLE as part of the group who'd taken so much from him when they used the Wizengamot to decimate his supporters and tried to take her to task for that, but she calmly pointed out that she was allowed personal time and her choice of friends, and for that matter she was better placed to oversee DMLE personnel in the event of something happening at the World Cup if she were present. Crouch was even more angry to see the Longbottoms, who had ruined him, but he was bright enough to keep his mouth shut, especially after Augusta caught his eye and all but challenged him to make a scene.
The visiting dignitaries from the French, Bulgarian and Irish Ministries of Magic were bemused by the ridiculous display that the British Minister for Magic was putting on in front of them, but Louis Delacour, the Deputy Minister of Magic for France, was actually more interested in the reactions of the men and boys in this group to his wife and daughters, or more to the point, their lack of reaction. Apolline, Fleur and Gabrielle Delacour were veela, and as such Apolline and Fleur were normally mobbed by the vast majority of males because of the draw of the allure of mature veela. Louis had had to keep most of the men in the Ministry box away from his family, but when they were introduced to the famous Harry Potter and the rest of the party in Duke Black's box, none of the men or boys there appeared to be overly effected by their allure.
After he shared a look of confusion over this with his wife Apolline, she gently probed the males of the group, only to be rejected and admonished for such impolite behaviour. She'd seen enough to recognise that they were all strong occlumens, even the younger boys, but she put her surprise at that aside as she apologised profusely and tried to explain how she and her husband had been greatly surprised by the lack of reaction to their veela allure and she hadn't been able to stop herself from attempting to see why this was so.
Apolline was no fool, and she dropped the subject at a signal from Angela, with a glance at Barty Crouch, because she understood that Crouch was an accomplished linguist and therefore would be listening to everything that they were saying. Louis quickly accepted Angela's invitation for his daughters to join the other children in Duke Black's box for the match and the Delacour family to join them for drinks after the match as he'd picked up her response as well. The Delacours were also interested to see that four of the sons of Arthur Weasley, one of the most pleasant of the representatives of the British Ministry of Magic who was there with two of his sons and his daughter, were actually there as part of Duke Black's party, rather than the Ministry party.
It was notable that not one of the party in Duke Black's box needed be restrained when the veelas who were cheering for the Bulgarian National team put on a show with their veela allure, whereas most of the men in the Ministry box did (including the British Minister for Magic and the Bulgarian and Irish Ministers), and so did many others in the stands. The Delacours decided that they would have many questions for the other party when they were alone.
Once the match was over, it was obvious that the fact that the Irish 'home team' won was wildly popular with the fans from the British Isles, who of course made up the majority of those present for the match, from the boisterous partying that broke out everywhere, and was most likely to continue through the night. The Delacours were escorted to the Black camp site by French and British Aurors, who grudgingly joined the goblin guards outside to protect the tents.
It was a pleasant interlude between the Delacours and their hosts, and Angela was quite frank and honest when she told them why most of the children in their group already had a good grasp of occlumency and the others had started learning it. When Augusta stepped in to explain why they hadn't wanted Barty Crouch listening in on their discussions, Louis snorted and said that he could understand that after dealing with the man for the arrangements for the tournament.
He realised that he'd let something slip that he shouldn't, but he already trusted these people more than he did the British Ministry, so he explained. "It is the Triwizard Tournament, a contest between the premier magical schools of Europe that was held every five years for five hundred years. This was supposed to remain a secret until it is announced, but the Headmaster of Hogwarts and the British Ministry of Magic have been pushing for the past year to get the tournament reinstated. They have finally offered enough inducements and promises to make it safer for the Ministries of France and Bulgaria to agree for the students of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang to take part in the tournament again and it will be hosted at Hogwarts this year."
Minerva, Filius, Augusta and Amelia were furious that this was the first that they had heard of a major inter-school tournament being held at Hogwarts in the year that was about to start, but Angela latched onto one part of what he said. "What do you mean, 'promises to make it safer' Louis?"
His grimace as he glanced at Apolline said this had been discussed heatedly in the Delacour household. "This tournament has had a bloody history, as competitors, officials and spectators were killed every time it was held. That was why it was banned over two hundred years ago. The British Department of Magical Cooperation and Department of Magical Games and Sports have assured us that they have removed enough of the truly dangerous elements of the tournament to make it much safer, and just to be sure, they will be restricting participants to only those who have reached their majority." He glanced at Fleur in aggravation.
"Not that that is any comfort to me, because my daughter will have reached her majority by then and she is determined to represent Beauxbatons in the tournament, nothing we say can change her mind on this." The determined look in Fleur's eye as she looked back at her father gave truth to this statement. Angela and the others quietly breathed a sigh of relief at that though, because they knew that most of the boys and some of the girls in their extended family would have been tempted to test themselves in a tournament like this.
The adults moved on to safer topics of discussion, while the children got to know each other. Gabrielle was delighted to have Astoria and Luna, who were only one and two years older than her, there to talk to, while Fleur was enjoying mixing with the others. She immediately got on with Dora, Angie and Katie, as they were only two or three years older or younger than her, and she found the other girls remarkably mature and interesting to talk to as well, so the girls meshed quite well.
As she'd learned to expect by now, coming into a group of men, the veela in her immediately searched for the best potential mates in the group. She was surprised by how drawn she was to the young Duke, as he was remarkably charming, mature and powerful for his age, attractive too, but he was five years younger than her and she felt the strength of his links with at least two of the girls so she knew that he would not be a mate for her. The red headed twins were nice and interesting, but they didn't have his power or intellect, and they were linked to Angie and Katie as well, so they also were out of consideration. Their eldest brother Bill was quite interesting, charming, intelligent, powerful and had an exciting life as a curse breaker, but she could feel his link to Dora so he, too was restricted to being a good friend at most.
It was therefore the last brother who caught her eye, Charlie was a few years older than her, nice, intelligent, powerful and he also had an interesting and exciting life as a dragon handler in Romania. Without any serious links to any women, Charlie was the best potential mate in this group, and therefore the best potential mate she had found in England (truth be told, anywhere for that matter). Fleur tried to disregard her veela side's evaluation of the men she met as she enjoyed the surprisingly engaging conversations she was having with these interesting people, but it did make her gravitate to Charlie.
Her mother was watching her from across the room and smiled as her veela made the same evaluations and reached the same conclusions as her daughter's. This was a remarkable group of young men (there was no question that even the youngest were men, and in fact the youngest, Harry Potter, was more of a man than many twice his age or more), but this Charlie Weasley had considerable potential as a good mate for her daughter. She and Louis would have to ensure that they talked to him as well.
Angela had caught Apolline's interest in Charlie and quietly gave her the background on him. She snorted at Apolline's thoughtful nod when she mentioned that, as the second son of Molly Weasley, the last of the Noble House of Prewett, Charlie had inherited the titles of Baron, and Head of the Noble House of Prewett, as Bill was the Heir to Arthur's titles. Angela waved away Apolline's attempt to explain why the title was important for acceptance by the Noble Houses, saying that she knew Noble House politics quite well.
It was around this point that Rackclaw interrupted them to say that there was some disturbance in the camps. The Delacours were surprised by how wands suddenly appeared in the hands of everyone in the Black party, and how quickly it was arranged for Apolline and the girls to stay with the others while Bill, Charlie, Amelia, Louis and the Aurors went to investigate. Louis was out of the tent before he realised that they'd already covered his arrangements because they understood that he'd be worried about the safety of the French people attending the Cup.
Amelia was soon swearing when she found that nearly all of her Aurors had been called to the Ministry tents on Barty Crouch's orders, and she made it quite clear in her patronus message that any Aurors who weren't back out there dealing with the trouble makers by the time she got there would be ex-Aurors in the morning. Louis was also swearing when he saw that none of the Irish or Bulgarian Aurors were helping with the situation either, they had apparently been all called to the Ministry tent to guard their Ministers as well.
The sudden influx of British and French Aurors made the trouble makers in Death Eater cloaks and masks drop everything and apparate away as quickly as they could, so the Aurors only managed to stun half a dozen of them, and two of the stunned ones had been grabbed and taken away by the others, though one of them had lost a foot to a splinching error. Just after they disappeared, someone cast the dark mark from a copse of trees nearby, but by the time Sirius, Remus, Bill and Charlie got there whoever did it had disappeared again.
While they were looking for evidence that might have been left, they had to quickly drop to the ground to escape the sudden barrage of stunners and stronger spells that were thrown at them. When they jumped up again, they were facing the wands of about a dozen Aurors and Barty Crouch. It was a powder keg situation until Amelia arrived with Louis and the other Aurors from where they'd been securing the stunned Death Eaters and Amelia barked at the Aurors to lower their wands. Most of them had heard the threat that they'd be fired if they didn't do their jobs, so they did as she said quick smart.
Crouch and the few who didn't were rather forcibly disarmed, but that wasn't enough to stop Crouch shouting. "See, I knew that Black was in league with you-know-who! We caught him red handed casting the dark mark, him, the werewolf and these two!…."
Amelia cut him off. "Shut up Crouch! You didn't catch them doing anything! Duke Black, Baron Lupin, Baron Weasley and Mister Weasley were all with me in the camps, dealing with the Death Eaters when that dark mark was cast, they came here to try and catch whoever cast it while we were overseeing securing the ones we caught, is that not correct, Sous-Ministre Delacour?"
Louis gave Crouch a disdainful look. "Oui, Director Bones, that is most assuredly correct and I will testify to that if required!"
Crouch wasn't a fool, just ruled by his anger and grudges, so he realised that he was in a no-win situation here and hastily backed down, insisting that it was understandable to draw the conclusions he had when he arrived at the location where the dark mark had been cast from to find someone who'd been suspected of working with he-who-must-not-be-named.
Amelia didn't bother responding to him, she just ordered the Aurors to scour the area and try and find anything that the person who had really cast the dark mark might have left. She'd already taken note of the Aurors who'd come with Crouch and had therefore been acting under his orders, in defiance of her orders. She probably wouldn't be able to take any action against Dawlish, because he was supposedly protecting the Minister and therefore had had an excuse to stay with him, but she'd have as many of the others as she could out of the Aurors before the week was out! If they were Aurors, they took their bloody orders from her, not Barty Crouch, who'd been thrown out of the job in disgrace over ten years ago!
As she didn't have the patience to deal with them, once she'd given the Aurors their orders she told Crouch to go back to the Minister and glared at him until he'd gone, then left Kingsley in charge of the others and went back to the Black camp site with Louis and the others. When they'd confirmed that everyone was accounted for and got everyone's stories, Amelia called Betsy, the Bones house elf who normally served her, and had Betsy pop her back to her office at the Ministry. It hadn't taken much to break the four so-called Death Eaters that they brought in, but unfortunately they only wannabes.
The Death Eaters were trying to build up their numbers after they'd been decimated by the recent purge that they'd managed to pull off through the trial for what had been done to Millie…. Amelia took a moment to savour how quickly and well the girl had bounced back in a safe, supportive, loving environment, no-one would recognise Millicent Bulstrode in the trim, attractive, vibrant girl she was now, and it had been a joy to see her laughing and having fun with the other kids at the World Cup before the Death Eaters started.
She shook her head, as happy as she was for Millie, she had work to do! They'd learned that the Death Eaters were rounding up the dregs of Magical Britain to beef up their numbers and this business at the World Cup had been a training run for them. From what the ones they captured had said, it appeared that there had only been one or two real Death Eaters there, and it must have been one of them who cast the dark mark. She was getting the Aurors to round up the ones that had been named by the prisoners, but she didn't expect that to come up with anything important. As expected, they hadn't found anything at the site where the dark mark had been cast from either.
Just as Amelia was getting ready to wind things up and go home, they had a call from St Mungo's. Amelia had had them put on alert for anyone coming in with their left foot missing, and someone had just turned up in that condition. She grabbed a team and the foot they'd collected at the World Cup site and flooed to St Mungo's. The foot was a perfect match, and as soon as the healers said he could be moved without significant risk, they dragged him back to the Ministry. While he still couldn't give them any real Death Eaters, he did give them a few names that were higher up the food chain than the others had. Amelia had been banking on the fact that, well she was hoping that, there had been a reason that he'd been taken after he'd been stunned, and it appeared that it had paid off, to a degree anyway.
The next morning, Amelia went to town in the Minister's office, pointing out that if Barty Crouch hadn't countermanded her orders the previous night and called all of her Aurors to the Ministry's tent, they might have managed to bag one of the real Death Eaters who were there, perhaps even the one who had actually cast the dark mark that Crouch and the Aurors that he'd taken away from their duties had attacked and might have killed a Duke and Head of a Most Noble and Most Ancient House for. Fudge of course tried to placate her and Crouch blustered, but she shouted both of them down and told Crouch that the next time he interfered with a DMLE operation she'd have him in front of the Wizengamot answering charges of aiding the Death Eaters.
She stopped at the door to have the last word before she left. "By the way, those eleven Aurors have all been fired and will never work for the DMLE again, Dawlish included. We cannot trust anyone who ignores the orders of their line of command and follows someone else who had no authority over them on a personal vendetta. Most of them testified under Veritaserum that Dawlish ordered them, at Mister Crouch's directive, to ignore my orders and follow Mister Crouch, so he proved that he is even less trustworthy than the rest of them."
Both Fudge and Crouch tried to tell her that she couldn't do that, but she cut them off. "Minister Fudge! We cannot have the Auror who is entrusted with your safety leaving you unprotected while he runs off, following someone else who has no authority to give him any orders. Even worse, Dawlish ordered ten other Aurors to ignore my orders and abandon their duties in the middle of the incident as well! For the rest, they ignored the orders of their rightful chain of command and followed men who had no right to give them orders in a gross dereliction of duty, so they simply cannot be trusted." She stopped and looked at Crouch. "And I think you should be questioning how much you can trust the man who took away all the protection you had in the middle of an attack to support him in some vain quest for personal glory." With that she turned and left, quite happy with the way that ended.
The last weeks of the summer break went quickly, as they had a celebration at Potter Manor when Millie, Tracey, Astoria and Hagrid's results came back, Millie had all 'O's and 'E's for her Third year exams, and Tracey and Astoria had the same for their Second Year exams. Hagrid results were eight OWLs, 'O's for Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology, 'E's for Charms, Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Ancient Runes and 'A's for History of Magic and Astronomy. He also got an 'O' for his NEWT for Care of Magical Creatures.
They were planning on keeping Hagrid's results a secret until he actually had a need for them, because if they could present the official results unexpectedly when he was publicly challenged, those challenging him would be less likely to be able to sabotage him. The fact that Dumbledore had quietly hired him to replace the Care of Magical Creatures teacher without notifying Minerva or the Board, and under the belief that he had completed less than three years of schooling at Hogwarts, made it a good bet that he was trying to set Hagrid up for something, so his results and the fact that he was a sworn vassal of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter were being held to be used when Dumbledore or anyone else showed their hand.
Standing on Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross, they could see that it wasn't only the goblin guards that were keeping people away. Fudge had had the Daily Prophet making vague inferences to Sirius and Remus being involved with the casting of the Dark Mark, and hence the attacks at the World Cup, and the sheep were believing what the Prophet said as usual, so most of the students and parents on the platform were pointing at Sirius and Remus and muttering about Death Eaters. That muttering dried up whenever they looked to see who was saying that, because sheep are only brave when the wolves aren't there.
Given the unfriendly vibes that they were getting from the sheep, they commandeered two compartments together at the rear of the train and magically expanded them to take eight each, opening windows to connect them. With Harry, Nev and Nuni in one compartment, Fred, George and Indu in the other and wards over both, they would be safe enough on the train. On the way to Hogwarts, they discussed this tournament that Dumbledore and the Ministry was hiding from the staff and students, and how they thought that would effect them.
Millie went with Astoria in the boats so that Tori could experience seeing Hogwarts for the first time as they all did. Once inside the Great Hall, they stepped aside at Minerva's signal to wait for the First years to be sorted. When the firsties were done, Minerva called for Countess Biróg and Millie came forward. What the others did not know was that most of the time of what they believed to be a hat stall was the Hat complementing Millie on how strong she was, to deal with her issues the way she had, and in the end it merely asked her what house she wanted to be placed in.
Millie's immediate response was. "Not Slytherin!" but with that out of the way, she had to choose one of the other three. She opened her eyes and looked at her friends, seeing that there were half a dozen in Gryffindor, four in Ravenclaw, three in Slytherin, but only one in Hufflepuff. The support that they'd given her had saved her, and she certainly understood safety in numbers, so she said in her head. "Hufflepuff!"
The Hat understood her reasoning and thoroughly approved of her choice, so its voice rang out proudly through the hall. "Hufflepuff!"
Millie glanced up at the Head Table as she set the Hat on the sorting stool and saw Pomona beaming at her proudly, as she had understood and approved of the reasons she chose Hufflepuff as well. Astoria got a quick squeeze of the hand for encouragement as they passed each other, then Millie went straight to Susie, sharing a hug as she sat beside her.
Astoria was quite possibly even brighter than her older sister and she'd worked out what Millie was doing, so her conversation with the Hat was brief before it called out. "Hufflepuff!" in the same proud voice. She gave a whispered. "Thank you!" to the Hat before she set it down and then she ran to where Susie and Millie had moved apart to make room for her between them. That, and the way they both hugged her as she sat down told even the slowest ones in the hall that these three knew each other.
Dumbledore was looking on suspiciously, trying to work out how this would effect his plans, because it was clear that the group with Potter and the others had just increased by two unknown elements. He smiled to himself though because none of them had any idea what was about to happen. With that, he stood to address the hall.
"Welcome, welcome, we look forward to seeing great things from the students who have just joined us over the next seven years. Now I have just a few announcements before feast can begin. We have had a few changes to the staff here at Hogwarts this year. As you know, we lost our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher before the end of last year in his heroic attempt to save one of our students…." he had to wait a few minutes for the angry muttering and calls from the students in potter's group, their guards, and even some of the staff to die down, but when it did he went on as if the interruption hadn't happened. "But I'm pleased to announce that I've managed to entice one of the top Aurors from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement into taking his place. Please join me in welcoming Professor Dawlish to the school..." The polite applause was almost drowned out by more angry muttering from Harry, Susan, Neville, Sirius, Remus and Angela, who knew quite well who John Dawlish was, as well as the fact that he'd been kicked out of the Aurors.
"We also lost our Potions Master and head of Slytherin House, Professor Slughorn, who had to move on..." Again he had to pause to let the muttering die down, but this time it was from many of the students, as well as those who had previously reacted, as the stories about what Slughorn had been helping cover up had gotten around the school very quickly. "As our older students will know, Professor Vector stepped in as the head of Slytherin House last year, and she has been confirmed in that role. Also, Professor Selwyn has agreed to take on the role of Potions Master." He paused to indicate a young man in his mid twenties who some the staff recognised from his time at Hogwarts. He had been no prodigy when he was there, so they thought that there was little chance that he'd gained his mastery in Potions. As he wasn't getting the reaction he expected, Dumbledore went on.
"And finally, Professor Kettleburn has decided to retire while he still has enough limbs to enjoy it, and I am pleased to announce that our very own Rubeus Hagrid will be taking over the Care of Magical Creatures classes, as well as continuing in his other roles." This time he got the applause he'd been looking for when he announced the other new teachers, and he looked around suspiciously.
"Also! I have an even more important announcement! I am afraid that the quidditch cup is cancelled this year..." The shouts of outrage that broke out at that were far more than the previous muttering about his unpopular statements. "Because Hogwarts will be the hosts for the return of a glorious tradition from our past, the Triwizard Tournament!" He paused for a response that didn't come, so he had to continue.
"The Triwizard Tournament is a contest between the three premier schools of magic, Beuxbatons in France, Durmstrang in Bulgaria and of course Hogwarts, right here in Britain. A champion is selected to represent each school, and they compete in three magical tasks for the opportunity for their school to hold the Triwizard Cup until the next Tournament, plus a thousand galleons prize money and eternal glory as the Triwizard Champion for the winner themselves. The Tournament was held every five years for five hundred years until it was halted two hundred years ago. There were many attempts to resurrect the Tournament over the past two hundred years, but only our own Ministry of Magic has managed to succeed where all others had failed, and the tournament will held here at Hogwarts this year. Now in the past, the Triwizard Tournament has proven to be a bit of a dangerous contest, so a new rule has been added this year to restrict the Tournament to only those students who have reached their majority before the Tournament begins."
This prompted another round of angry outbursts from the students, because all of the students under seventeen who had been getting excited by the sound of the tournament, not to mention the thousand galleons prize money and glory that they could win, felt ripped off when they were told that they wouldn't be allowed a chance to participate. That was why half of them missed much of what Dumbledore said after that.
"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October, and I am certain that you will all make them most welcome. The other schools' headmasters and delegations will remain at Hogwarts for most of the year, until the end of the Tournament. The champions for the three schools will actually be selected by a magical artefact called the Goblet of Fire. This will be set up when the other schools arrive to allow students who wish to participate to submit their names for consideration. In accordance with the rule that will restrict contestants to those who have reached their majority, I will personally drawing an age line around the Goblet to prevent anyone under seventeen from submitting their names. The Tournament will begin with the selection of the three schools' champions after the Halloween Feast….."
Dumbledore gave up then, because most of the students were ignoring him as they discussed the tournament. He also saw that McGonagall and the other Heads of House were getting ready to jump down his throat, so he signalled for the food to appear to give himself a reprieve. He was watching Harry Potter and trying to work out why Potter hadn't seemed that surprised or interested when he'd announced the Triwizard Tournament, but he was also keeping an eye on McGonagall and the others, so whenever they finished eating and turned to him, he signalled for the next course. This made the feast progress far more quickly than ever before, something that they heard Ronald Weasley and several other walking stomachs complaining loudly about.
About three quarters of the way through the feast, Dumbledore mumbled that he'd been called away and asked Minerva to organise getting the new students to their dormitories when it was done before rushing out. If looks could have killed, the one that Minerva sent after him would have surely done it, but she shook her head in disgust and turned to the others. While Pomona and Septima knew that Tracey, Millie and Tori were all going into Corvus Tower, their prefects still needed to be told, so the two women headed down to do so before the end of the meal.
Minerva also had a First year who wanted to go home before the feast finished, because Ginny Weasley had had her brother Ron telling her that she had to work with him and help him get through properly, seeing as he'd been held back due to his abysmal performance the previous year. She told the crying Ginny that she'd do what she could to make him leave her alone and to come to her if her brother didn't leave her alone, then she asked the other teachers to separate them in class, asked the Gryffindor prefects to step in and stop him if he tried to force his sister or anyone else to help him with his assignments, and dragged Ron off to her office after the feast to tell him that if he tried to force his sister or anyone else to help him in class or with his assignments, she'd have him thrown out of Hogwarts. Minerva was dreading what Molly Weasley's response to that would be, but she was hoping that she'd take her daughter's side over her son's, so she sent a letter to the Weasleys explaining what Ginny had come to her about and what she did about it.
When everyone but the walking stomachs had had their fill, Minerva signalled for the plates to be cleared, asked the prefects to take the First years to their dormitories and took Mr Weasley off to tell him how things were going to go this year.
The girls' rooms were shuffled a little in Corvus Tower, as Daphne and Tori took one pair of bedrooms together and Millie and Tracey took another, while Hermione and Luna, Susie and Padma and Angie and Katie kept their arrangements. Hogwarts had added extra doors between Harry's room and Daphne and Millie's rooms to make it easier for the girls to come to him when they had nightmares, as he was good at calming them down and making them feel better.
After they'd gone to their rooms to change into something more comfortable, they went back to the common room to discuss what they thought Dumbledore was up to with the tournament, and bringing in John Dawlish to teach Defence.
Angela and most of the others had seen Dumbledore surreptitiously watching Harry when he was announcing the tournament, and after as well, so it was pretty much a given that the tournament was meant to be some sort of trap for Harry, they just had to find out what exactly the trap was. None of them were happy that Dumbledore had hired John Dawlish as soon as Amelia fired him from the DMLE either. Amelia had almost deafened Angela when she ducked out of the Great Hall to mirror call her and tell her that Dawlish was teaching at Hogwarts, but aside from the fact that Dumbledore was supposed to run any potential staff by the Hogwarts Board before hiring them, there wasn't much they could do about that. For that matter, Dawlish should at least be more qualified for the Defence role than Quirrell or Lockhart had been.
Sirius and Remus were also itching for a fight, because the curses that Dawlish had been hurting at them, Bill and Charlie in that clearing in the trees at the World Cup had been meant to kill them. Amelia hadn't been able to do anything about that either, because they'd pushed through the laws to allow Aurors to use deadly force in response to Death Eaters who were attacking them, and officially they had believed that Sirius, Remus, Bill and Charlie were Death Eaters when they found them in the clearing so the arguments made were that he had thought that they were throwing curses at him and the Aurors because he hadn't realised that the curses were coming from the Aurors on the other side, but they were certain that he knew who they were and was trying to drop them so that they could lay the blame for the Death Eater attack on them.
All they really got out of their discussion was that this was going to be another year where they had to keep looking over their shoulders, but that had pretty much been a given anyway.
