Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter!
Rated M: Mature
Updated: 6/28/10
Welcome Back Potter
Chapter 14: Three Wise Men
Harry left the Hell's Hound Pub and apparated straight back to his statue garden on Potter Island ignoring the summons of the Dark Lord for now, and entered his make shift prison cells. Since he no longer needed his prisoners, and had gotten all the information he would out of them he needed to find a good way to dispose of them properly. Since they were all in practically vegetative states from his intense mind rapping of each of them, he simply bound all three of them together and apparated them into the Minister of Magic's office he had left over six hours previously. He sat and secured them each to chairs with Minister Fudge behind his desk, and Lucius and Kingsley flanking him on either side.
He made sure they were all secured, and that the room was heavily warded and silenced before he sent off a memo to Arthur telling him he was back and ready for him. He had thought a bit about what to do with the three Death Eaters he had impersonated, and had no problems killing them, but with his recent actions in front of the Wizengamot in Fudge's body didn't want all of his hard work to be cast aside after the world discovered the creepy politician's real allegiance. Fudge was not a total sociopath like most of Voldemort's followers, and had been bribed, coerced, and tortured to do the Dark Lord's bidding over the last ten plus years so it wasn't the same with him even if he knew he had to die.
Arthur entered the room cautiously after knocking and getting told to come in, not knowing exactly what to expect after such a long wait. He was shocked therefore to find the three bound and unconscious Death Eaters before him and turned questioning eyes to the young wizard who had orchestrated the whole thing. His eyes were wide after seeing plain as day the three dark mark tattoos they each had on their forearms and wondered just what Harry had in store.
"Are they dead?" he asked tentatively, since Lucius looked like he had really been put through the ringer more so than he had ever thought possible.
"No, not yet," spoke Harry in reply.
"What are you waiting for?" asked Arthur even more tentatively and a bit confused.
"Actually, I was waiting on you …and George too," replied Harry evenly.
"Why George?" asked an even more confused Arthur.
"You and he need to see something, and I was hoping for both your help as well," continued Harry seriously, "could you Floo him and give him this portkey to come here now?"
"Sure, anything else?" asked Arthur, and after a shake of Harry's head instantly went to the fireplace in the office to get a hold of his son knowing whatever Harry wanted had to be important.
A minute later George appeared in the office by portkey quickly looking around the Minister's office, and instantly going wide eyed as he noticed first off the three bound Death Eaters and couldn't believe that both Fudge and Shaklebolt were among them. He turned to his dad to ask him what was going on when he noticed the only other person in the room and stopped immediately in his tracks as he recognized that hair and eyes.
"Harry?" he almost whispered in disbelief, "is that really you? What's going on? Why is Kingsley here?"
"Hi George, it's good to see you and we'll get to them in a second," answered Harry with a nod to one of the few people who always believed him.
"It's great to see you too mate, I hardly recognized you if not for the hair and eyes," he answered as he rushed over to the slightly younger wizard and gave him a firm hug in his happiness to see him again, "when Dad said it was important I had no idea what to expect, I hope it's good."
"It won't be at first, but I promise the ending will be for us," continued Harry as he pulled a small case out of his robes and enlarged and opened it, and put the now visible stone bowl on Fudge's desk for the other two men to see.
"A Pensieve?" asked Arthur curiously.
"There is something that you need to see firsthand, it probably won't be pleasant at all but you deserve the truth," continued Harry in a flat emotionless voice knowing this was not the time for levity. "The first memory is Kingsley's alone, so is the second at the beginning and then it flows into Lucius' at some point that will be easily identifiable. Are you ready?"
The familiar lurch pulled Harry and the two Weasley men into the stone Pensieve and deposited them in a small and very tidy family room. Glancing around them, Arthur and George instantly recognized many of the items and pictures belonging to Percy Weasley who was found dead years previously, and they both looked to Harry. Harry simply pointed to the far corner of the room where two people were sitting across from each other talking softly, and the three viewers of the memory moved closer to hear what they were discussing.
"Have you made up your mind yet on Fudge's offer?" asked the deep voice of Kingsley Shaklebolt.
"Why did he have you ask me?" countered Percy before the tall black auror lifted his sleeve to show off the ugly dark mark tattoo of Voldemort making the red head gasp. "You work for You-Know-Who?"
"With Potter in Azkaban, the Dark Lord is bound to win, and us purebloods would have a better place in his new world, what do you say?" responded Kingsley.
"I'm sorry Kingsley, but I won't join the Death Eaters. I may not agree with Dumbledore or my family, but I will never serve You-Know-Who," spoke Percy confidently.
"I'm sorry you feel that way Percy," replied Kingsley coldly, "but if you won't join the Dark Lord, you present too much of a risk to his plans …I'm sorry …Avada Kedavra!"
The scene instantly faded into darkness as Harry heard Arthur and George gasp and let out small squeaks of pain next to him as they watched their son and brother die for what he believed in heroically. Seconds later and the darkness began to take shape again, this time the viewers were standing in a dark alleyway right next to the crouched and hidden forms of Kingsley and the twins, Fred and George Weasley. The viewing George let out another gasp of pain, instantly recognizing what this memory would show, and wondered why he needed to see it again.
"You guys secure this area, and I'll go scout ahead to see what we're looking at," spoke Kingsley in a rushed tone.
"You got it Shack," replied the twins in unison and Kingsley made his way down the alley.
"We need to follow Kingsley here, let's go," spoke Harry to Arthur and George who were both still looking longingly at the now deceased Fred with his twin conspiring next to him. Harry could tell how difficult this whole scene was for George, but it was something he needed to see and judge for himself. They followed the tall black auror easily for a few minutes until he came to another dark alley were a very familiar silver-blonde haired man was waiting anxiously.
"What took so long Kingsley?" asked the ever self-important Lucius Malfoy.
"Dumbledore wanted to send Tonks and Jones with us, I had to convince him otherwise," replied Kingsley in a matter of fact tone.
"So those Weasley brats are here alone?" asked Lucius with an evil gleam in his cold grey eyes.
"Yeah, I'm scouting the area now," spoke Kingsley with a soft chuckle that sent shivers down the two watching Weasley's spines. "I'll be leading them back through here in about ten minutes, so be ready …the Dark Lord wants them dead."
"Don't tell me what the Dark Lord wants," sneered Malfoy coldly, "just lead them here."
As Kingsley began to walk away, Arthur asked if we were following him, but I shook my head and told him this is were the memory split to Lucius and to stay put. After a very brief blackout, the memory came back into focus in the exact place they left it with Kingsley walking away and Lucius' cold grey eyes following his departure. Since we were now in Lucius' memory, we could also hear his thoughts although we had to get close enough to really decipher what he was thinking.
'I wonder if I can use his son's blood to open their family trunk,' he thought to himself as he sat and waited to spring the trap and pulled out two items from his pocket that caused both Arthur and his son to gasp loudly as they recognized a family ring and trunk both with their family crest engraved on them. 'Arthur is still the Head of the Family, but maybe his son's blood would work as well. It's a shame my great grandfather couldn't have just used the blood of Bilius Weasley when he killed him and stole the trunk and ring in the first place. I can't ask the older Weasley brat working for the Dark Lord, because then he would want the trunk, and it's too valuable to give up, I just know it …ah, here come the brats now!'
Harry, George, and Arthur watched Malfoy return the ring and trunk to his pocket for now, and turned in time to see the three members of the Order of the Phoenix talking quickly in the center of the road. George had gone almost white as a sheet at what he knew was coming, while Arthur was almost visibly shaking in rage at Malfoy's treachery. They could just hear Kingsley giving orders to the twins at the end of the alley they were watching from Lucius' perspective.
"Fred, you take the right alley, George has the one to the left, and I'm going forward to scout ahead …we'll meet back up outside that church up their," came the deep baritone of the black auror.
The three viewers of the scene watched in seemingly slow motion as Fred Weasley slowly made his way over to where they were standing watching Lucius lay in wait to ambush him. Lucius had a cold and cruel gleam in his grey eyes as he waited for Fred's approach from the shadows of the alley and before Fred even noticed anything, had stood up and fired a spell.
"Diffindo," he whispered almost inaudibly as the pale blue light of the cutting curse sped towards Fred and tore into his shoulder leaving a large gash of blood and a torn robe behind.
Lucius was instantly next to the struggling and bleeding Weasley twin within seconds of falling to the ground, and quickly kicked away his wand and sent another kick to his injured shoulder for good measure. He then pulled out the shrunken trunk and placed it on the ground under Fred exposed wound letting several drops of blood hit the Weasley Family crest on it's surface which remained unchanged causing Lucius to let out a growl of anger and send another kick to Fred's side.
"Your usefulness is up Weasley," came Lucius' cold and angry voice as he leveled his wand on Fred's downed form and hissed, "Avada Kedavra!"
"No," gasped a watching Arthur as he grabbed his present son next to him who looked about ready to break down all over again.
"Fred, where are you?" came a shout from George Weasley at the street end of the alley the viewers of the memory stood, "something's not right here Fred …we need to get out of here."
"Avada Kedavra," came Lucius' cold voice again as George neared the area where his dead twin lay, and had just enough presence of mind to dive sideways to avoid the green light of the killing curse as it flew by him.
"Wizzing Fisbees," shouted George frantically, and we all watched as seemingly hundreds of small circular disk shaped fireworks flew out of his wand in multiple directions towards where Lucius had fired his spell from.
Before the fireworks approached the longhaired dark wizard, the scene darkened momentarily and then reappeared seconds later as George fired off his fireworks spell. Harry told them that the memory was just switched back to Kingsley's perspective and they would see why in a second. As the fireworks approached where they knew Lucius to be, they had only a second to see his cruel face illuminated before he turned and disapparated on the spot letting the fireworks pass by his previous location harmlessly.
"Fred, where are you?" shouted George now in full blown panic after hearing a faint sound of someone disapparating, and quickly stood and lit his wand tip to see better.
He almost instantly saw his twin brother on the ground not too far away from him, and let out a rage filled scream of pain as he ran to his side and fell to his knees by his brother and other half. He didn't even need to check to know that Fred was dead; being able to feel his absence intrinsically but nevertheless pulled his head into his lap searching for any sign of life. Harry pointed to the two stunned and watching Weasley men to a spot further down the alley where they could almost faintly see Kingsley watching the scene before him and moved a little closer to him as George cried out painfully for his deceased twin.
"Damn it Lucius, you were supposed to kill them both," he muttered to himself and raised his wand towards the back of a crying George lining up for a shot, "Avada K-"
"Fred, George, is that you?" came the shout from a newly arrived Tonks and Hestia Jones as they ran up the alley from the street following the sight of the several still going off fireworks and seeing the trademark red hair of the one of the Weasleys.
"Shite," snapped Kingsley from his hiding place as he interrupted his own killing curse due to the untimely arrival of his two subordinate aurors knowing he couldn't risk his cover, and slinking back away from the scene so as not to be found so close.
As the scene began to fade this time, the three viewers felt the familiar lurch that spit them out of the Pensieve, where they landed with a silent thud into the still confined office of Cornelius Fudge. Harry could see how difficult that was for the two men to watch and felt bad for making George especially relive that horrible moment, but knew that they both deserved the absolute truth and that telling them about it wouldn't be the same.
"That fucking son of a bitch," snapped George after regaining his bearings and realizing they were back in the office and the two people he was most angry at were bound and unconscious in chairs before them.
"I had no idea Kingsley was a spy …that bastard destroyed my family," yelled a ghostly white Arthur almost openly crying in pain, but angrier than I've ever seen the Weasley Patriarch. "He will pay!"
"I know that was hard to watch, but you both needed to see the truth, I didn't think it would be the same if I just told you what these fucking assholes did," replied Harry with a cold yet emotionless voice despite literally being able to feel his anger in the small office.
"Those fucking pricks killed two of my brothers," growled George, as his eyes grew wild with rage, "I want Malfoy!"
"I was hoping you would say that, Arthur will you take care of Kingsley?" continued Harry with the same cold look in his eyes as he stared at the three soon to be dead Death Eaters.
"Shouldn't we tell Dumbledore about them first?" asked Arthur somewhat nervously, although the anger was still very prevalent in his eyes.
"No, I'm sorry Arthur but Dumbledore is too soft on prisoners of war, and I can't afford any of these three men leaving this office alive," replied Harry sternly.
"Well, in that case Harry, I'd like to be the one to take out Kingsley for what he did to my family," spoke Arthur determinedly and with a growing fire in his usually soft brown eyes as he turned his focus to the man who killed one of his sons, set up another for death, and tried to kill a third.
"I understand Arthur, and am honored to have you both here with me for this," responded Harry sincerely as he gave both angry and resolute looking men slight nods of his head. "Are we ready? Here, use their wands, and I'll take care of our beloved Minister."
"Avada Kedavra," all three men spoke at once, eerily reminiscent of an executioner's firing squad and lighting up the room in a sickly green light.
"Incendio," whispered Harry quietly after killing Cornelius Fudge and watched as his skin and most importantly his left arm burned and began to blacken and smoke.
"W-what are you doing to Fudge?" asked Arthur timidly as he watched the charred and black skin of the now former Minister.
"I have to do something to hide his dark mark, or someone might be able to argue against all the laws I enacted this morning in his name," replied Harry logically before checking Fudge's body to ensure that the ugly tattoo was no longer even traceable or recognizable under all his blacken and burnt flesh and then left the wands on each person and tossed their dead bodies to different parts of the room to at least make it look like a struggle went down.
"You're going to leave them here?" asked Arthur as he watched me make up a small crime scene to throw off the investigator's trail.
"A dead Minister and two dead Death Eaters will speak for itself when they're discovered. Why don't you make a little noise tomorrow morning on your way up here and maybe bring someone along with you if you can …it will help if you're not alone when finding them like this," replied Harry to the somewhat surprised Arthur for thinking that far ahead. "You'll also probably need to make a statement and even call another emergency session of the Wizengamot, where you should be named the new Minister of Magic."
"But the Wizengamot has several of You-Know-Who's followers, they could make it difficult," replied Arthur somewhat worriedly.
"They're all dead, Lucius and I had a meeting with them before we came here," responded a stone faced Harry causing Arthur's eyes to widen and almost choke in shock as George just grinned triumphantly and gave Harry a satisfied nod of his head knowing what he meant.
"Did he look like that at the meeting?" smirked George with a vindicated glare at Lucius' dead body.
"I went polyjuiced as him as my wife tortured him a little," responded Harry easily.
"So you are married? Is it true you have kids too?" asked George in curiosity.
"Yeah, we have two kids, Sirius James is almost three and Lily Ginerva is just two months old," responded a proud Harry as he thought about his precious children.
"Who is your wife?" asked Arthur somewhat sadly, as the mention of my daughter's name reminded him of his own daughter's death.
"How about we talk about that some other time," answered Harry, not wanting to get into an argument about Bella knowing it would be damn near impossible for anyone to really accept her in his life.
"Sure Harry," replied Arthur, before all three of them felt something and reached into their robes and pulled out golden phoenix medallions that were letting them know that a meeting was being called, and Harry was glad he had taken Kingsley's pendant when he first captured him.
"What do you want us to do Harry?" asked George who looked at the green eyed wizard with a determined look of respect and admiration.
"Actually, I was hoping Arthur would invite me to the meeting as the representative of the Green Phoenix Foundation," spoke Harry with a slightly mischievous smirk on his lips that broke a smile to George's face and light in his eyes that hadn't been seen since his brother died.
"That's a great idea Harry, I can't wait to see everyone's reaction when they realize it's you," replied George genuinely happy.
"I don't know Harry, Dumbledore might make things difficult for you," spoke Arthur warningly and with good reason.
"Thanks for your concern Arthur, it means a lot to me …but I can handle Albus," replied Harry with an even more knowing smirk on his face. "Let me just clean up after us," added Harry as he waved his hand and a thick blanket of magical energy seemed to settle throughout the room like a thick blanket.
"What was that?" asked a wide-eyed Arthur as he felt the tingle of the magic's power pass over him.
"Just masking the magical signatures so we can't be discovered by aurors tomorrow," he answered as he packed up his Pensieve and pulled up the hood of his cloak before grabbing both Weasley men and disapparating them to the gates of Hogwarts.
AN: Sorry for the long wait, but life has a way of passing by too fast with too much else going on to let me keep up with any kind of regular schedule for typing and writing. Enjoy the chapters!