Author Note: Harry Potter and company are not mine. I didn't create them and do not own them. They belong to Ms. Rowlings. As always I remind you this story is already finished. All I need to do is upload each chapter for you to enjoy. And I hope you do.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Arthur Discovers the Truth

Arthur had shown up three days into the new semester asking to see his children. Augusta conceded to his requested because he was asking. Not demanding. Nor did he ask to see Harry at the same time. Besides which, his entire body language screamed heart break. Not revenge.

So she had called the youngest two Weaselys to her office and let them visit with their father though she didn't leave them alone with him. He asked them, "How did this happen? Albus assured us everything was going fine between you. He said Harry was dating you now, Ginny, but he was keeping an eye on things making sure it didn't go too far too fast. And he said you, Hermione and Harry were all tight friends again, Ron. But the twins said he marked her too. And she got expelled for cheating. I don't understand this. What happened?"

Ron sighed and hung his head. "First off, we got cocky. Figured since he hadn't caught on to us being paid to be around him or just helping ourselves to his stuff yet, we didn't need to be so careful about what we said or did. I mean, when I think back I can see we weren't exactly subtle or cautious about what we were doing. And there were several times when he caught us red handed going through his stuff. But we just blew it off and pretended we weren't doing anything wrong. And he just let it go, you know. So we assumed he didn't know. Just like we assumed he didn't understand what we truly thought about him. Hermione kept telling us how stupid and blind he is. I guess we just came to believe it, you know."

Ginny was nodding as she added, "But he isn't. Not stupid and definitely not blind. He knew exactly what kind of 'friends' we actually were."

Ron spoke around her continuing his tale. "So when we couldn't get into the vaults at the end of summer and Mum couldn't get us good stuff for this year or new clothes, we put our heads together. Figured we get him to give us back our access and then, on the first Hogsmeade weekend, put his money to our use again. We thought we were so smart, see. Since we've spent all our time here helping our former Headmaster set up his training scenarios and driving Harry into them which allowed the old headmaster to keep his control over Harry and his reputation, we really did think we could do anything we wanted. Any time one of the teachers started getting onto us, Dumbledore would handle it for us and keep us out of trouble. So yeah. We got cocky."

"We decided to confront him about it. Rather stupid of us, now that I think about it. I mean, we were cocky because we thought he was too stupid to know we were being paid from his vaults. Yet we were going to go straight to him and browbeat and bully him into giving us new keys when our old ones didn't work any more." He shook his head as if amazed at how stupid he could be.

"As if he actually had our keys in his pocket," muttered Ginny snorting derisively. "He's not a damn goblin and we all knew the goblins recalled our old keys. We also knew only a goblin can hand out a new key. Yet we confronted him and demanded like children asking for candy that he hand over our keys. Hands out to him and everything. We were so stupid."

Ron nodded flushing with embarrassment. "Mione said he owed us because it was his need to be the Hero that always got us into tight spots where our lives were in danger and neither of us questioned that at all. We should have because we both knew it wasn't true. I mean we set those damn things up so we knew how dangerous they really were. And we always chose to go with him because Harry always tried to stay out of the dangerous part of things. He always wanted to go get a teacher and just tell them what we knew about things. So the teachers could take care of the problem. We never let him because Dumbledore wanted to be able to show the public he was the hero they could count on. And none of us were actually in any danger that we didn't bring onto ourselves. I mean, yeah Gin was in danger her first year here and Mione and I found ourselves in plenty of tight spots over the years. But that wasn't Harry's fault. If it was anyone's, it was Dumbledore's because he insisted we push Harry to solve each years trouble."

"But anyhow, the first time we knew Dumbledore was out of the Castle,"

Ginny interrupted with a frown, "He's been gone a lot this year for some odd reason. He's usually never gone when school's in session. Sometimes he'll go somewhere for a few hours but usually never for a full day. But this year he's gone more than he's here."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Doesn't matter now, Gin. He's not Headmaster anymore." He turned back to his Dad. "Anyway Hermione found out the Headmaster was going to be out of the Castle. Something about a mess at the bank. I don't know how she found out and honestly, I don't really care. We should've stopped right then as soon as she said the word 'bank' but we didn't. I mean, it doesn't take much brain power to realize we no longer had the keys to the vaults he set up for us and now he's having Banking issues? Must mean he's already working on the problem. Right? But we didn't stop. Figured we were smart enough to solve our own problem."

"So we tracked Harry down in the library and confronted him about our keys no longer working. We demanded he give us back access to our money saying we had earned it and he had no right to keep it from us. He questioned us about it. Even used the term Services Rendered which we each agreed was how we earned the money. Not one of us gave a second thought to what it meant or why he used that particular term when we agreed to that classification but we should've. We really should've. Because that's really not a nice term."

Arthur had paled as his son had been talking but now he flushed a bright red. "No, no it's not," he murmured.

"And we really should have realized if Mr. Dumbledore had to be out of the Castle due to a mess at the Bank, then maybe Harry wasn't the reason our keys weren't working anymore." Ginny frowned. "I mean, he was as it turns out. But we had no reason to assume that given Hermione told us why Mr. Dumbledore would be out of the Castle."

Ron looked his father in the eye. He was trying really hard to be mature and own up to his bad behavior and blame in what had happened to him this year. He still felt like being angry over it and finding someone else to blame for his misfortune. Anyone else he could blame. But he was trying to get past it.

"We were wrong, Da. Wrong about everything. We thought he didn't know. He did. We thought we were entitled to that money because Dumbledore had authorized it for us. We weren't because it wasn't Dumbledore's to give. We thought Dumbledore was his legal guardian. He wasn't. We thought Harry didn't know he was the sponsor of our scholarships. He does. But worse. We thought he didn't know what exactly Dumbledore was paying us to do. He did. Every single thing."

"He knew we were being paid to be around him and act like his friends while keeping all the other kids in the castle away from him lest he like some of them better than he did us. When it suited Dumbledore, we were to spread rumors about him to isolate him from the school while keeping our distance and we thought he didn't know. He did. And Mione was paid to keep his grades low so he wouldn't out-perform any of the pureblood kids. Again, she assumed he didn't know what she was doing or why. He did. I'm still not sure why he wanted us to do that actually but at the time I didn't care and just did as I was told. Which was to distract him from doing his schoolwork as much as I could and make his daily life here as uncomfortable for him as possible."

"I honestly thought Harry didn't know a lot of his bad reputation was due to our rumor spreading. But I was wrong. He knew. We thought he didn't know we were leading him by the nose into traps we had set up over trouble Dumbledore had allowed into the school. We were wrong. He knew. Both about the traps and who brought the trouble into the school."

"Secondly, Dumbledore. Like we said earlier, he hasn't been here much this year. Probably why the school year has been running so smoothly this year. Because even when he was here physically, he's been preoccupied and not really paying much attention to anything school related. He certainly hasn't been paying attention if he thought we were good friends again."

"Harry's the king of the school again and all the students are taking their lead from him as to how to behave. And I mean all the kids. Even the Slytherins. The other teachers have even started a Round Robin kind of thing to teach us all our Defense Against the Dark Arts because we've had such lousy teachers for it under Mr. Dumbledore the fifth and seventh years were worried about failing their Ministry exams. All because he told Seamus to ask one of them for help in learning what he needed to know. And then named names and gave reasons as to why each might be a good choice for outside instruction and supervision. Word spread and soon all the named teachers found themselves being hounded by the student body to teach them real Defense so they could pass their exams in May. That Round Robin Defense class is the favorite class of the year according to the school rumor mill and several of the students in it are likely to get upset if it stops because the new administration is bringing in aurors to teach us now that Umbridge has been evicted."

Augusta made a note of the information. Her staff might not like being told they needed to continue the defense lessons they begin giving the student body but the last thing she wanted was a Castle full of unhappy teenagers. Nor did she expect the students to automatically trust the aurors Amelia was sending her for the scheduled class. The students had suffered under bad instruction for too many years now to easily trust their new instructors.

"But we, Gin, Hermione and myself, have been on almost constant detentions since mid-September when we confronted him in the Library. And when we aren't in class or detention, we're in a meeting with Professor McGonagal about our marks and atoning for them or in a study hall. Remedial usually because we, Gin and I at least, are so far behind in our studies we need those classes, Da."

Ginny grimaced even as she nodded. "We were so sure we knew what our future would be we weren't studying, Daddy. At all really and this year with everything that happened, it all caught up to us. Now we're snowed under and instead of having a shovel to dig ourselves out, we've only got a cooking spoon."

Behind them Augusta snorted quietly to herself though her eyes had turned thoughtful. Maybe the children needed to be moved back a year or so if they were truly so far behind their age group? No one wanted to see them fail out. At least she didn't think anyone did.

Ron hurried on as he really didn't know how much time they had to tell their Dad their story and get him to understand the truth. But he did know if they ever wanted to be comfortable at home again, their Dad had to know the whole story so he could calm their Mum down for them before they saw her. "Nor have Harry and Gin been dating. Quite honestly, Harry made it very clear she's the last girl he would choose to date. He has from the very first day of our third year. Her second. We always refused to hear him."

"Mione always lectured him on his unwillingness to just forgive her. She'd point out how ungrateful he was and how he should be thankful because Gin's a popular girl with her age group and could convince people Harry wasn't the bad kid they all thought he was. And I always yelled at him telling him he should be grateful a girl like Gin was even interested in somebody like him when she could have any guy she wanted. Stuff like that. we were trying to force him to accept Gin when he really didn't want anything to do with her. So naturally he doesn't like her. I mean, I wouldn't like a girl that was being forced on me all the time either. That went around telling everyone she was my girl and we'd be together when we grew up. So why should he?" He shook his head over the memories of how arrogant and highhanded they'd been with Harry over Ginny and Harry's treatment of her.

"Harry marked us that day in the library and lectured all three of us quite thoroughly making it very clear exactly why he was branding us to everyone there. And there were a lot of students in the library at the time. We hadn't really noticed when we went in. To be honest, what kids we did see, we only thought gave us the chance to show our might over him. Make sure all our peers knew we were still the leaders of the school, you know. That we had Harry Potter under our thumb and could make him do whatever we said. We wanted to confront him figuring he was interfering with our plans for the school year. Having a few people witness it, was all the better from our point of view as it'd only add to his discomfort when we forced him to give us new keys. He sure turned that around on us though. All those kids got to witness him humiliating us instead. And boy, did he humiliate us!" Ron's gaze dropped from his Dad's face to the floor and off to one side as he remembered how angry and humiliated he'd felt that day.

Ginny sighed and added, "Still, it took weeks for Dumbledore to notice. Almost until the beginning of November. I'd even had time to seek out the Runes teacher here to discover what Harry had marked me with before Dumbledore finally got around to noticing our plight. Not that he did anything. There wasn't really anything he could do. So we've, Ron and I that is, we've had time to get used to our new faces. And I've had time to realize I actually do deserve what I got branded with. I got branded as an adulteress because that's what my words and actions made me. But honestly it wasn't until Hermione got expelled that Ron woke up and realized maybe things weren't as he thought they were."

Ron nodded again. "True. I mean, up until then I'd only been waiting for Dumbledore to find a way to remove the marks for us or to force Harry to do it. I refused to admit he couldn't remove them because I didn't want to believe it was my own magic keeping my marks in place."

"And Mione was keeping my anger running high with all her efforts to discover what Dark Magic he used against us and trying to find a way to get revenge on him for it. Which only meant she was suffering a lot because the marks are monitors for us and her thoughts, words and actions were telling it she was acting against Harry again. So it kept punishing her which only made me angrier because I thought I cared about her."

"But then she got expelled for the cheating Dumbledore was paying her to do and he not only couldn't stop it but as far as I could tell, he didn't even try to. I know. I was here in the office the night it happened. She admitted bold as brass she was being paid by him to dumb down Harry's assignments so he'd get lower grades and that she had his permission to substitute Harry's work with her own when dumbing down Harry's stuff hadn't given her enough time to do her own. Gin's mark can and will go away but . . .mine won't. At least not entirely."

"What do you mean? And how did he do it? Maybe we can undo it. There must be someone that knows how to get rid of it."

"Yeah," Ron nodded. "There is. Us. We know how to get rid of them because Harry told us. He told us when he gave them to us but we were so angry and full of self-righteousness we didn't listen to him. We didn't want to listen to him."

Ginny explained. "These are judgement runes, Da. He used the old magic to punish us for our sins against him. That means he called upon Magic itself after tricking us into admitting our guilt in front of neutral witnesses over how we'd all been using and abusing him for money and fame. Because he called upon Magic itself to judge us, it's our own magic that made these marks and monitors our behavior. He set the terms for the marks but it is my magic that judges my behavior. Just as it's Ron's magic that judges his. So long as we obey the rules he gave us, the marks don't and won't hurt us. But only we can get rid of them and the only way we can do that is to atone for what we did wrong."

She paused looking down at her lap sadly before adding, "But Da, even if I do get rid of my mark, it won't really make a difference for me. Every student here knows what I did to him and most of them have told their families as well. My reputation is ruined because I took the coin Professor Dumbledore offered without making certain I had a betrothal contract to go with it. And by being there in the library the day Ron and Mione confronted Harry about the matter, I confirmed to everyone there I not only knew I was being paid to date him, I was proud of the fact. You know what that makes me in this world. If we believed in a god or goddess, I'd request to be transferred to a convent but we don't so I doubt I'd be accepted," she finished with a wobbly smile and a touch of bitterness.

"After Mione got expelled, I got to thinking, Da. We Weasely's have always trusted and believed in Dumbledore. But I don't think he cares about or believes in us. As Gin reminded me after Mione got expelled, he knew Harry would find out about the payments because sooner or later Harry would come of age and even if we kept it a secret until then, the goblins would've told him when he takes over his inheritance. Even I knew Harry would see it as a betrayal. I know I told Dumbledore that more than once. But he always said not to worry about it. That he'd handle it so Harry would be ok with it. But he didn't, Da. And clearly Harry isn't ok with anything we did. Nor should he be. I wouldn't be if it was me it'd happened to. So why should he be?"

"I want to say he had no way of knowing Harry'd find out now. Or how he'd react if he did. But I can't. We all knew, Dumbledore included, just how very good Harry is at finding out things everyone's trying very hard to keep from him. So we should've expected him to learn the truth and we should've been better prepared to counter him when we discovered he knew. We weren't and I just can't help but think Dumbledore probably had a good idea how he'd react. I'm not saying he knew Harry'd use old magic or anything. Just pointing out he never once said anything to warn us of what Harry might try to do once he found out," said Ron bitterly.

"So now I'm stuck with the Betrayers mark and it won't ever go away. I might get rid of the rest of the rune. But not this," He pointed to the rune between his eyes on his brow. "Harry even told me it'd be there for the rest of my life. Because I betrayed him. Not just once but several times over the years. I can't even say I didn't mean him harm because, at the time, I did. My head was so swollen, I was trying to get him removed from the picture so I could take over his role and become the Hero everyone saw him as. So, as much as these marks have ruined our futures, I can't help but say we deserve them. We earned them." His smile as he said that was subdued and slightly twisted with bitterness but at least he was making eye contact again.

"Several people have pointed out we got off lightly, Mione and me. He could've denounced us and had us arrested by the aurors. I'd have gotten Azkaban, Dad. That's not an exaggeration. It's the truth. Because I tried to kill him in our second year when Ginny was in trouble. Kids here have told us Mione would be lucky if that's what she got. I can't help thinking they're right."

"You tried to kill him? Yourself? Why? How?" Arthur asked weakly as he paled over the admission.

"Oh I didn't think I was doing any such thing at the time. But hindsight shows I was," Ron admitted. "He wanted to get my least favorite teacher once we confirmed where the entrance to the chamber was. I didn't want him to so when the sink opened the tunnel, I picked up a chunk of broken off rock and hit him in the center of his back near his neck knocking him off balance. He fell head first into the tunnel neither of us knew the first thing about. That's attempted murder Da. No matter how you slice it." Arthur gulped but nodded. Even Augusta was nodding. She too had a seat on the Wizengamot and knew it was an Azkaban worthy admission of guilt. If she was sitting on a jury panel and heard someone confess to doing that, she'd have voted for a conviction herself.

"Because we all committed fraud against him. And that's illegal. He never approved the money Dumbledore gave us, Da. Not one single knut of it. Because even though Dumbledore offered it to us, it wasn't Dumbledore's money to give. It was Harry's and all us knew that. Including Mum. Actually, he's had that on either me or Mione dead to rights for attempted murder for each of his years here, I think. Because we were the ones setting up Dumbledore's little scenarios he told us were training missions for Harry. Well, maybe not last year. We really didn't have anything to do with the danger he was facing last year."

"Mione and Gin both owe him a life debt they were denying and you know you aren't supposed to do things to endanger the person who saved your life at risk of their own. Nor does the Wizengamot look kindly on those who come before them who've done such a thing. So you see? It really could have been Azkaban for me at least. Someone told Mione they might actually have just tossed her through the veil to appease Harry if he'd taken us to court an' all."

Quietly Augusta who had listened to every word the two children said, nodded and said, "The children are right, Arthur. If Mr. Potter had brought this before the Wizengamot and I was sitting on the panel, I'd have voted for a conviction. He would have gone to Azkaban and because of her blood status, Ms. Granger would most likely have been fed to the Veil. Your daughter would be given to a house of ill-repute under a contract of bound servitude and ordered to have no contact in any form with Mr. Potter or his family. They are very lucky Mr. Potter chose to handle things himself here at the school instead."

Arthur was wide-eyed by the time his son finished speaking. He'd known things would be bad. But he hadn't expected it to be this bad. He barely heard Lady Longbottom telling him what could have happened to his children. Now he muttered just barely louder than a whisper, "Oh Dear. Oh dear." He took a calming breath and closed his eyes briefly trying to regain his composure.

Finally he opened them again, gave a nod to Lady Augusta and turned back to his children. "I knew Albus had us sign a betrothal agreement for Harry and Ginny. At least I thought the contract was for Harry and Ginny. The money was a part of that so you could play closer to his future station in life. He said you needed to look, act and dress the part of a future wife to a future Lord of the Realm so the money was to help us meet that obligation." He paused as he seemed to catch what he just said. "Oh my. He was playing us the whole time. Why didn't I see this before? Oh Ginny. I'm sorry. It was my job to protect you and I let you down. I am so sorry, Sweetheart." He reached for her and pulled her into a tight hug.

The teens looked confused so he explained further. "When Albus came to us with that contract, he said Harry had noticed Ginny and thought she was pretty but not dressed well enough for his future station. Albus flattered us. Told us what we wanted to hear and we listened to him. In that one statement he relieved us of a lot of our worries. Your letters, Ron had left us wondering if Harry actually knew his place in our world. And we were worried about how we'd manage to find a suitable match for Ginny when she grew up as we just didn't have the money to set aside a good dowry for her. And here was Albus telling us Harry Potter not only liked what he saw when he caught a look at our Ginny but that he did know of his place in our world and wanted to help us make it so Ginny was a suitable bride for him when the time came."

"But I should have known better. I mean you were ten at the time. The only time Harry could've seen you was when we took your brothers to the train to go to school and I seriously doubt he was paying any particular attention to any specific person that day. But I wanted to believe Albus. So I shut my eyes and played the blind monkey."

"Albus kept saying you'd be playing a role and needed to dress the part with enough money to act the role of the future wife of a future Lord. He kept using the words 'play' 'role' and 'act', and I never caught on. After saying Harry thought you were pretty, he never again said anything about you becoming Harry's wife. He never used Harry's name again and didn't once mention Harry's hero status but instead kept referring to you as the future Lady wife. At the time I didn't catch it."

He sighed heavily. "Now, given what has happened, I can see he never meant for you two to marry. I'm not sure why but I'd bet anything that contract I signed is either not a betrothal agreement or it's not legal even if it is. Because I can't think of any child Albus Dumbledore has guardianship of other than Harry Potter. And I can't help but wonder if that was a legal contract, just who did I tie you to if it wasn't Harry Potter as I thought it was at the time. Because if that contract is both legal and a betrothal contract, I'm almost certain it's not Harry who'll be your husband." Ginny paled. Her reputation ruined or not, she didn't want to be wed to just anyone. And Albus Dumbledore had proven he wasn't and never had been acting in the best interest of the Weasely family.

Pale and trembling Ginny whispered, "He isn't Harry's guardian, Dad. He never has been if the rumors we've heard are right. So the only person he can draw up a contract for is himself. I think. I don't want to marry him Dad. He's old. Ancient really. Ewww."

Augusta's lips twitched in amusement as she saw the girl shiver. Really the girl had a point. That would be one very unpalatable marriage contract for a girl her age. To Arthur she said, "You should know we are looking for Albus on charges of Mail Tampering for his actions during his tenure here as Headmaster. The auror department should've received the particulars on that by this time. And those charges should help you break the contract if it actually does exist."

Arthur turned green. He stood up. "Thank you Lady Augusta. I'll go take care of this now." To his children he said, "You just concentrate on your school work. I'll also talk to your Mum. I've already taken away her howler parchment and told the Prophet not to answer her calls or accept any messages from her. Luckily, I have friends there who'll make sure she doesn't get anything into the paper that will embarrass us."

Ron and Ginny stood up as well. "I'd say sorry, Da, but somehow it just doesn't seem to be enough you know. This whole thing is just. . .like a nightmare I can't wake up from," said Ron seriously. "Can you maybe also find out what happened to Hermione? I mean, I don't want to talk to her or anything. I know she's a lot of the reason this happened and I've come to realize I wasn't really in love with her as I thought I was. I was just used to always having her around. But still. . .I need to know what happened to her. She's been a part of my daily life for four years now and I can't help but be worried for her now that I don't know how she is. All we really know is she was expelled from Hogwarts for cheating and taken off premises by a pair of aurors. We don't know if they brought her up on charges, snapped her wand, bound her core, or what. And I don't think her folks know she owes Harry a life debt or what it means for her. That could be really bad for her because her debt was established in our first year then confirmed in our second. So it's a serious debt she owes him. Nor do we know if anyone bothered to explain the rune on her cheek. I mean, I know she said her Mum can read runes. But that doesn't mean she'll understand what it is or that Mione's magic is backing it."

Augusta interrupted, "Mrs. Granger can read runes? She's a muggle isn't she?"

Ron turned to the new Headmistress and nodded. "Mione said her Mum got into it as a hobby when she was going through her training to be a tooth surgeon as a way to relax and unwind. Apparently muggles also investigate ancient burial sites and stuff like our brother Bill does. So they learn to read runes and all other sorts of ancient writing. One of their biggest movies the year Gin was born was something called 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. It's all about a guy who makes his living explore old tombs and stuff. He steals the treasures buried within them and then sells them to collectors or museums. I think. I never actually saw the movie or read the book but that's what Mione said it was about."

"Interesting," Augusta murmured.

Ginny smiled at their new headmistress as she expounded on the subject. "Hermione said muggles study all sorts of dead languages so long as there are examples of that language in written form for them to gather and make copies of. She said her Mum found runes interesting and challenging because they had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with taking care of peoples mouths and teeth. So she could relax as she studied them knowing nothing she made a mistake on was going to ruin someone's ability to eat or talk."

Arthur smiled as best he could as he got the conversation back on track. "I'll try to find out for you, Ron. But she lives in the muggle world so it won't be easy. For now, you just concentrate on your schooling. Seems to me, you'll need it more than ever now." With that the teens were dismissed. Arthur stayed to talk with Augusta about how she had come to be sitting in Albus' chair and running his office as well as what she knew about the affair that resulted in two of his children being marked by another he had begun to think of as a son.

They talked for over an hour and by the time Arthur left the Castle he was much more settled about everything. He still had a lot of work to do if he had any hope of settling Molly down and saving the family from ruin. But while he had come to the school angry, upset and heartbroken over the story the twins had told them, he now knew Harry wasn't the one to blame. Yes, he had called upon Magic to try his children for their actions against him but he'd only done so because they forced his hand. If the children had been patient and waited for Dumbledore to straighten things out for them, they might not be marked at all. Better yet, if they'd just trusted him, Arthur, he might just have seen through Dumbledore's plot sooner. Maybe not soon enough to save Ginny but he might have been able to save Ronald and Hermione. Maybe. As it was, Albus Dumbledore had ruined his youngest two children.

He went to the Ministry to see what he could learn of Hermione's fate and was told she was taking advantage of a tutor so she could sit for her owls and maintain her wand rights. The Ministry was keeping an eye on the family because Hermione was consider a security risk for the Statue of Secrecy. In addition to having hired a tutor for her the parents had also hired a Mind Healer through St. Mungos when it was explained to them that many of the things Hermione needed help dealing with, she couldn't talk to an uninformed muggle about as it would violate the Statue and get the family into trouble with the Ministry. He asked that the family be informed of Hermione's outstanding Life Debt issue and did his best to explain what the circumstances of that debt was though he wasn't exactly sure himself. He only knew his son said she owed one to Harry just as his daughter did.

Then he went home to look for Ginny's betrothal contract. Molly was waiting for him and rounded on him angrily.

"What did you learn, Arthur? I hope you punished that boy for even daring to raise his wand against our beautiful children. Ron and Ginny didn't deserve that from him. After all we've done, this is how he repays us. Marking our children. Disgracing them. How dare he! What did Albus have to say? Did he make that boy remove them? Put him on probation? Expel him? After all, that's what he did to Hermione and all she ever did was help him. No more than he deserves," she ended on a mutter.

Arthur held up his hand and slowly lowered his pointer finger. "A lot." Lowering the second finger he said, "I didn't see Harry so no I didn't punish him." Lowering the third finger, "They did deserve it or the marks wouldn't be there. Magic judged them. Not Harry." Lowering his pinky, "They disgraced themselves with the things they've been doing while at the Castle. They haven't been entirely honest with us over the years and this is the price of their dishonesty." Folding in his thumb, "Albus said nothing because he wasn't there. He's no longer the Headmaster of Hogwarts and Lady Augusta doesn't even know where he is as he hasn't been seen since the first day of the Yuletide Holiday."

Frowning at his hand he shrugged and raised his pointer finger. "So naturally. No he didn't make Harry remove the marks." Raising his middle finger he smiled lightly. "No Harry isn't on probation." Raising the ring finger he added, "Nor is he expelled as he did nothing wrong." Raising the pinky, "Hermione got expelled because she was breaking the Hogwarts cheating rules and falsely representing herself. And Harry, which he never asked her to do in any manner. Her deceit led to a skewing of the marks for every student in her year as she was using magic to sign her name to his work and his name to hers. That means, Molly, Harry is a great deal smarter than anyone believed and Hermione is a great deal less intelligent. But I didn't fail to notice Hermione sure did enjoy taking credit for his intelligence whenever she could."

Pushing out his thumb again Arthur grinned sadly at his now completely open hand. "Harry didn't deserve anything Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Albus have done to him these last four years. Or you. And yes, I do know you too have been taking money from his vaults supposedly to buy his school supplies for him and then spending the bulk of that coin on our children rather than him. Because I do remember how the only things you've ever gotten for Harry was exactly what was on the school supply list for him and not one thing extra. Like new clothing. That ends now and I will be paying back each fraudulently spent coin you helped yourself to over the years because I now know Harry never authorized it at all as you told me he did. Now the piper has come playing his flute and he is collecting his due."

"In the meantime I want to see that contract Albus handed us for our daughter. I've just been made aware Albus Dumbledore is not in fact the guardian of Harry Potter and therefore has no legal right to be entering into contracts on his behalf. So I want to know who exactly did we tie our daughter's hand to."

Molly went pale as cuddled milk as she practically ran for her special drawer where she kept every parchment she considered important to her family.

Author Note: Please review. As always I hope you enjoy my story. Happy Reading.