Chapter 20
Gringotts Bank, September 10th, 2:13 PM
Director Ragnok tapped his claw on the desk in contemplation and annoyance.
"And that's everything? You aren't leaving anything out? Not the smallest little detail?" The head goblin questioned.
"Yes sir. We really don't know anything else. That's why we brought it here." Harry pleaded.
"Well you're just no help at all are you Mr. Potter?" Ragnok replied with an irritated look as he leaned back in his chair. "Release them."
The security goblins produced keys from their pockets and inserted them into some slots on the back of the chairs that Harry and Remus couldn't see. With a *click* the forehead restraints unclasped and sunk back into the chair. Two more clicks followed shortly after freeing their hands and feet.
"I hardly think all this was necessary." Remus complained while rubbing his wrists.
"Unnecessary?" asked Ragnok with a harsh expression. "You two brought a class 6 dark object into my bank. A place I consider more holy then my own home! You're lucky I didn't just dump your bodies down a mine shaft and completely scrub this meeting from our records."
"But.…there's only 5 classes of dark objects." Remus stammered while paling a little.
"According to the information that the public is allowed to see, yes that is true." Ragnok said with a little scowl.
"So...what is this thing?" Harry asked with worry in his voice.
"Under the treaty of 1628 that the Goblin Nation has with your government I am not at liberty to give out information your ministry has deemed classified. It is best if you two go home and forget you ever found this.…abomination. Gringotts will dispose of it for you. That last part is non-negotiable." The director said with folded hands and a harsh tone.
"No! Wait please! If it has something to do with Voldemort then I need to know!" Harry implored, remembering why they brought it here in the first place.
"It's classified Mr. Potter. You think just because you have a history with Mr. Riddle that I'm supposed to care what you want? I may be a high official in goblin society but not so high that I can't be replaced. The law is ironclad and I'll lose my head if I break it."
"How did you know his name is Riddle?" Harry asked, taking a little detour in the conversation.
"Really?" asked Ragnok with a look that said 'are you serious?' "That's what we do here at Gringotts. We make money and we know things. Now I'm afraid this meeting really is over."
When the director finished speaking he snapped his fingers twice and the four security goblins hoisted the wizards out of their chairs and started leading them to the door.
"Please! I need to know! It's Important!" Harry yelled behind him as the goblins shoved him forward.
"Goodbye Mr. Potter." Ragnok said with a little wave.
The security goblins opened the office and began pushing them out.
"Please! There's a prophecy! I have to fight him! I have to be the one to beat him!" Harry tried. If that didn't convince the goblin then nothing would.
"STOP!" Ragnok directed to his subordinates. "Bring them back in….." he said with a very annoyed sigh.
Harry and Remus were shoved back into their chairs and Ragnok pinched his brow.
"Mr. Potter…...when I asked you if you weren't leaving anything out…..not the smallest little detail…THAT WOULD'VE BEEN IMPORTANT TO MENTION!" Ragnok screamed.
Harry sunk down into his chair like a child who had misbehaved. "I'm sorry sir...I didn't think it was pertinent to the conversation..."
"I didn't think it was pertinent…." Ragnok mocked in a childish voice. He then looked towards the guards in the room. "Get out. All of you. This is above your pay grade."
"But sir..." one of them objected.
"Get…..Out….." Ragnok said while staring the guard down. "and someone find me Adlast. Tell him to meet me when I'm done here."
Ragnok waited until the security goblins and master Kruggrast had left and closed the door behind them before he spoke again.
"…..you know I was having a pretty good weekend until you two showed up. Come in here and ruin my Sunday…." he lamented under his breath.
"Sir?" Harry asked.
"It's nothing." Ragnok replied. "I still am not allowed to tell you what this object is but I suuuuppose the law does allow for me to tell you what this object is in relation to Mr. Riddle."
"So the enchantment on it is connected to Voldemort?" asked Remus who was trying to piece together a guess.
"Enchantment? There is no enchantment on this artifact. This locket literally is Mr. Riddle." Ragnok said very plainly.
"Well it can't 'literally' be him. It's a piece of jewelry." Remus countered.
"And that is where you are mistaken Mr. Lupin. I never misspeak. This is literally Mr. Riddle... Just not all of him." Ragnok spat out the last words as though they tasted foul on his tongue.
"Well how does that make any sense?" Harry interjected.
"That's classified."Ragnok replied curtly. "I can say that the creation of this object is not only a high act of heresy to my people but a vile crime against magic and nature herself."
"So...what does it do?" Harry asked now staring at the locket in terror.
"Specifically?" Ragnok asked.
"Specifically." Remus confirmed.
"That's classified." Ragnok said with a little shrug.
"Can you tell us in vague terms what it does?" Harry asked with a plead in his voice asking for leeway.
Ragnok tapped his fingers on the desk as he chose his words carefully.
"I can say…..that as long as this item or any of it's siblings exist then you will never be able to defeat Mr. Riddle." Ragnok finally settled on.
"But I defeated him in my first year.! Harry proclaimed.
"Not permanently. Last I checked he was still running around." Ragnok stated, still tapping his fingers.
"So...this locket and it's...uh 'siblings'...is what allows him to stay alive as a spirit?" Harry questioned, trying to understand.
"...yes." Ragnok answered slowly, wondering if he was allowed to answer that question.
"So what do I do then? Find them and destroy them?" Harry asked with determination.
"YOU?" Ragnok laughed heartily like it was a joke. He leaned back on his chair and placed his hand over his chest as he just kept laughing and laughing. The goblin even had to bang his fist on the table a few times to calm himself down. The notion was just so absurd. "You will do nothing Mr. Potter. The moment I got called in here this became a Gringotts matter. I'll be sure to let you know once we've finished locating the objects. Then you can finish your little quarrel with Mr. Riddle."
"But I want to help with-" Harry objected.
"Go. Home. Mr. Potter. There's nothing for you to do here. We'll be in touch."
With that Ragnok scooped the locket into a box and left through a back room.
Harry looked at his uncle and asked the question on both their minds.
"Well what do we do now?"
Gringotts Bank, Director Ragnok's Private Office, Same Day, 2:39 PM
Head of field operations Adlast opened his superiors door and peeked his head inside.
"I heard you wanted to see me sir?" He said in a cheery tone.
"Adlast? Good. Get in here. And stop looking so damn happy."
"Something the matter director?" the chipper goblin asked as he took a seat in front of the desk.
"Today...during a routine artifact appraisal two wizards brought in …..a horcrux." he whispered the last two words.
First Adlast paled, then his expression turned indecipherable, before finally settling on controlled anger.
"Whose?" the suddenly very serious Adlast asked.
"Mr. Tom M Riddle." Ragnok said while sliding the box over so Adlast could see inside.
"What do you need from me?" he asked, averting his gaze so he wouldn't actually have to look upon the piece of sacrilege.
"First I need you to go to Berlin, to Gringotts central branch. Once inside you need to hand deliver this letter to director Larlok. Do not give it to a teller, do not give it to his secretary, you will give it to him. Once there he will grant you access to vault #1217. There's a device in there we're going to need. It will look like a large glass ball with two silver handles on the side. It should be able to locate any other soul shards Mr. Riddle may have hidden away."
"We can do that?" Adlast asked with astonishment.
"Not accurately...unfortunately. The...lets call it a compass… will give us the directions of the other soul pieces in relation to where the locket is but wont give us any information beyond that. Distance, elevation, and other factors will be a mystery. Still it's better than nothing." Ragnok explained.
"I'll leave right away!" Adlast announced and jumped to his feet.
"I'm not finished yet!" Ragnok yelled "I want you to put a team together to carry it and hunt these things down. Best of the best. What's Mr. Barro doing?"
"He's on assignment in Algeria taking care of-"
"Pull him. I want him leading this."
"Yes sir."
"Alright. Go. I want to see the individual team members profiles on my desk in three days."
Adlast saluted to his superior before rushing out the door.
Ragnok leaned back in his chair and took a heavy sigh. "I swear...first thing I'm doing when he gets back is checking every vault in this fucking building." he muttered to the empty room.
Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Amelia Bones's Office, September 13th
Amelia was sitting upright and snoring in her office chair. The very nature of her job often forced her to work long nights so in order to keep her sanity she would need to rest when she could. An hour nap here, 20 minutes there, it wasn't healthy but she found a way to get by.
A loud pounding on the door startled her from her peaceful rest.
With eyes still closed and a mind not fully awake Amelia fumbled for her wand and released the locking charms she had put on the door.
The door crashed open and senior auror Williamson practically ran into the room.
"Will?" Amelia muttered while rubbing her face to wake herself up. "This better be damn important. I've got to-"
"He's awake ma'am! Pettigrews awake!" the auror spat out, not letting his boss finish her sentence.
Amelia's eyes shot open and she chugged the old coffee sitting on her desk.
She opened the bottom drawer of her desk and pulled out a small bottle of Veritaserum.
Amelia took a second to eye the bottle like it was the most beautiful thing on this earth and gave the vial a little kiss before rushing out of her office.
Ministry Of Magic Atrium, September 14th
"MADAM BONES!" Cornelius yelled from down the hallway. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS? WHO TOLD YOU YOU CAN CALL A PRESS CONFERENCE?" Cornelius Fudge shouted while gesticulating wildly and approaching Amelia in haste.
"No one told me to Cornelius. I just decided to." Amelia replied rather smugly. She was hoping Fudge would confront her before she went on stage. She was going to cherish this moment for years to come.
"BUT WHAT IS THIS ALL FOR? WHY WASN'T I INFORMED?" the minister blustered.
"Cornelius I'm right here. You don't need to yell." Amelia said with a smile. This was so much fun.
Fudge took a deep breath and tried to not look red in the face. "Madam Bones you will tell me the purpose of this press conference immediately or I will have my aurors shut it down and you will be placed on administrative leave." he said while gesturing to his personal security detail standing behind him.
"Auror Dawlish. Step forward." Amelia said calmly, ignoring Fudge's threat.
"Ma'am?" asked John Dawlish, the captain of the ministers security team.
"It's time." she said while giving the auror a special look.
"Time? Now? Today?" John Dawlish asked confused before realizing what Amelia was referring to.
"At the press conference. It's time." she confirmed with a nod.
"What time? What are you talking about auror Dawlish-" The minister started to shout again.
Auror Dawlish wheeled around and slammed his fist into Cornelius Fudge's nose sending him crumbling to the floor.
"Oooooooohhhhhh that felt good. I've wanted to do that for sooooo long." Auror Dawlish looked upward and moaned as though it were an orgasmic pleasure.
Amelia knelt down next to Cornelius who was clutching his bloody nose while sitting on the floor.
"To answer your earlier question minister." Amelia spoke slowly and with a smile. "The purpose is to save this country."
Amelia stood and walked with purpose to the main lobby of the ministry building, leaving Fudge in the caring capable hands of auror Dawlish.
She opened a door to the lobby and was immediately onset by tons of flashing cameras and reporters asking questions. She had called every wizarding publication in magical Britain to this conference. Not just the papers, but the magazines as well. Even the ones like Teen Witch Weekly that would normally have no business at a press conference. There were even a smattering of reporters from , France, Spain, Germany, and other European countries too. Amelia wanted to 100% guarantee that what she had to say got out to as many people as possible.
Amelia stepped up to the podium and waited for the cameras to stop flashing.
"Hello. For those who do not know me my name is Amelia Bones and I am the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement for the British Ministry of Magic. Before we begin I would just like to draw attention to the fact that my aurors are now passing out copies of some documents to each of you. I know the folders are quite thick but please bear with us. I will be referencing those documents in a short while."
Amelia stood tall at the podium and waited patiently as she watched her men go row by row and distribute identical packets to every journalist present.
"On the night of June the 24th of this year, two boys were killed at the third task of the international tri-wizard tournament. It was reported that they were kidnapped by an insane death eater who was trying to inspire fear and reverence for his long dead master He-Who-Mus-...excuse me. His long dead master Lord Voldemort."
She paused for effect and to let the people gasp at the name.
"This. Is. A. Lie. Inside your packets you will find a transcript of veritaserum induced testimony provided by another death eater who was found unconscious at the scene. For security purposes the presence of another death eater involved in the events of that night was kept from the public record."
Amelia stopped speaking and let the reporters shift through their pages to find the documents in question.
"As you can all read for yourself a dark ritual was performed by Mr. Pettigrew and Mr. Crouch that was successful in reviving the Dark Lord Voldemort. On an unrelated note Mr. Pettigrews testimony also shed some light on how he came to be in the graveyard that night. 13 years ago he faked his own death and framed wanted criminal Sirius Black for the crime of his supposed murder as well as several others. My department has had some evidence for a while now that questioned the events of the night of Mr. Blacks supposed crimes but nothing concrete before today. In light of this testimony I am hereby rescinding the arrest on sight order for Mr. Black and am asking him to show himself to my office to answer a few follow-up questions we have."
The murmuring and conversations of the crowd had grown large enough that Amelia had to stop again and wait for them to quiet down.
"These next few words are not said to just the reporters in this room but to every wizard in great Britain who might be listening in to this speech over the wireless. Lord Voldemort is alive. That is the truth. It is an unpleasant truth to be sure but that does not make it any less real. Think of the disappearances that have been happening. The violent crimes that are on the rise. All of this is the work of Voldemort and his Death Eaters attacking this country from the shadows. Soon his forces will be strong enough that he will no longer need to hide. For close to three months now the Fudge administration has denied this fact and stuck it's head in the sand. Too afraid to face reality! That ends today! In your packets you will find several documents that implicate Minster Cornelius Fudge, his Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge and several members his cabinet of bribery, corruption, and gross negligence. In addition to these crimes you will also find that most of the bribery charges are linked to have been from suspected death eaters in order to get away with major crimes and avoiding prosecution. We can conclude through these facts that the minister was knowingly undermining public safety and the security of this nation. This has allowed for a perfect climate for Lord Voldemort to rise and spread his reign of fear and terror once more. Therefore I am forced to add to his list of the ministers charges...TREASON!"
Flashbulbs burst in a cacophony of sound and light as cameras took more pictures of Amelia at the stand.
"As of this moment I am urging the wizengamot to call a vote of no-confidence against the minister and remove him from office. Once done so I will have the legal authority to question him with veritaserum and we can all learn the depths of his corruption. Finally in your packets you will find a list of names. These men and women are all suspected death eaters, some of them are even ministry employees. The list of names is too extensive for me to read here so I kindly ask you publish them in your newspapers or other media. I will also post the list in the center of this lobby later today. Starting at 12:00 tomorrow afternoon these people will have 72 hours to present themselves into auror custody for intensive questioning. If one does not comply within this time frame then they will be branded an enemy of the state and hunted down by DMLE agents with extreme prejudice!"
Amelia paused one last time to let her words sink in and have them know she was serious.
"If your name is on this list and you're innocent then you have nothing to fear. Thank you all for coming." she finished and walked offstage.
Reporters swarmed her and started bombarding her with questions. Amelia slowly and silently moved through the crowd to get back to her office. Not commenting on anything.
As she closed the door to the lobby leaving the press behind one reporters shout managed to cut through the crowd. "Who gave you the authority to let you do this?" she asked.
Amelia shut the door and inwardly smirked. 'It's not a question of who's going to let me...it's a question of who's going to try and stop me.'
Malfoy Manor, The Dark Lord's Chambers, Same Time
"…...then they will be branded an enemy of the state and hunted down by DMLE agents with extreme prejudice!...If your name is on this list and you're innocent then you have nothing to fear. Thank you all for coming."
Voldemort switched off the wireless radio with a flick of his wrist.
He looked around the room at his inner circle all kneeling before him.
"So…..the game has changed then. Well I'm more than happy to show Madam Bones that I'm willing to play!" The Dark Lord proclaimed. "Lucius!"
"My lord?" one of the death eaters raised his head.
"Your son is still in school. You should know then. When is the first Hogsmeade weekend this year?" Voldemort asked with a sick grin.
"They're every weekend now my lord. One of the changes the new headmistress has-"
"Excellent!" Voldemort exclaimed. "She wants to talk about fear? I'll show her what fear really means."