"Chapter 52 – Not As Bad As Things Might Have Been

"Hi, Dad!"

"Where have you been, Ginevra? Kingsley and I have been searching for Harry much of the day."

Shacklebolt, Mum, and McGonagall were also present, as was Neville.

"We had to finish setting up our initial hideout in the Muggle world," Harry helpfully answered in my stead. "That required cell phones off and leaving our aurors behind. We were then confronted with the need to come to the rescue of my grandmother, who was attacked by Muggle hoodlums employed by Montaigne's man Roderick."

"I thought you had promised Kingsley that you wouldn't try to evade your aurors," Dad complained in a surprisingly even tone.

"I fully trust Bill and Barb," Harry assured Dad, "but still felt it best that the Auror Corps not know where my secret hideout is located. As you know, there have been quite a few bad aurors, and other aurors who don't accept me as their boss. Then there is the strange way the Spencer twins were treated by the aurors. It seemed best to keep my secret a secret."

"We can talk about that later. I know you are naturally suspicious and that this has served you well, but you're part of a team. You oversee the aurors."

"For now, I manage the department that includes the Auror Corps. We both know that doesn't put me in charge of them. We know many aurors resent me and feel zero loyalty towards me. I know you were worried that you couldn't find me and I'm sorry for that. We were gone a lot longer than I expected. We Apparated too many times and had to rest. I also knew that if Bill or Barb knew where I was, that at a time exactly like this when you were worried because I was late, that they would take you to us and then my secret hideout would be very public. We took precautions to be very safe."

"I'll accept all of that… for now, but I do need to talk to you and Ginevra. I know that you have worries, as do I. It isn't healthy to let them fester. For now, I need to know more about your day and about Ginevra's and Hermione's last few days."

"Too big a group to discuss it here," Harry told Dad. "I'm not being impertinent, but it really would be unwise to discuss it here."

"That means you're not willing to speak in front of me, doesn't it?" McGonagall asked, in what seemed a well-acted attempt at wounded innocence.

"A lot blunter than I would have said it," Harry admitted the truth, "but I am not your agent anymore. It is perfectly natural that we have secrets from you. Despite your promise, you certainly kept a lot of secrets from me."

"Yes, it certainly is," Dad agreed. "Who do you suggest we include in the meeting."

"You, me, Molly, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron."

"I'd prefer to include Kingsley, but he's part of your department and I won't insist that he be present."

"Thank you. I'll fill you in later, Kingsley. Much of this is quite personal. In part I'll be talking to the Minister, and in part I'll be talking to my mother- and father-in-law. I hope you understand."

Shacklebolt mumbled that he understood but seemed less than totally pleased.

"Shall we go back to my office at the Ministry, then?"

"Please – not another Apparate today," I begged.

"How about Molly's apartment here at Hogwarts?" Harry suggested.

"Fine."

"Hermione, please fetch Snape's anti-snooping device and meet us there."

As Hermione and Ron departed, an exasperated McGonagall complained, "That leaves me to babysit Harry's grandmother, here at Hogwarts. I also want an explanation of what Ginny and Hermione learned in the Sacred Cavern. It likely is very important."

"It is too disorganised to be discussed now and likely should not be discussed generally until the full Committee meets," I told her.

"Meaning you can tell your father, but not me."

"I can only tell him a fragmentary summary now. And, yes, he is my father and he is the Minister. I don't think Harry's grandmother will cause much trouble in the next few days."

"A few days!" McGonagall blurted out as she left our Common Room.

Mum led us back to her apartment. I whispered to her that Ron and Hermione had to make a quick stop, before joining us.

We were all seated in chairs, facing an unlit fire as Dad asked, "Well Harry, I sense that something is seriously bothering you."

"It's probably nothing. As you say, I worry about problems that don't exist and suspect people who are friends. Still, I've seen friends like McGonagall who have their own plots, which may be very dangerous to us, even if they don't intend us harm. So much has been not as it seems. I also fear that I lack the experience to be your Deputy, and that I get little respect because of my age. Lately, I've had doubts about the basic function of the Ministry, Auror Corps, and Hogwarts.

"The whole Spencer twin situation and the involvement of Director Shacklebolt's personal aurors really shook me. It started me thinking about whole mysteries that I've not been let into, such as the purpose of Hogwarts and bringing Muggle-born children here. It just seems that it's a big exercise in control and bringing wild talents to heel. I didn't ask the question of his aurors in front of him, and I didn't strongly press Shacklebolt, after he volunteered to be questioned, but what he said reinforced my sense from the Hogwarts encounter, where I got the distinct impression that those aurors were present to murder the twins if Shacklebolt decided it was necessary. Those aurors did not want me in the room with the twins and themselves.

"They immediately phoned Shacklebolt. It simply roused my suspicions. I wondered why would it be that you didn't know that special aurors were to be sent and that I was to be cut out of the process? I was right here at Hogwarts the whole time. Madam Bones was shocked at what Shacklebolt had done – she was meeting with Shacklebolt when I challenged him about his actions. His assistant wasn't even sure she was going to allow me to disturb his meeting. I had brought the twins here and persuaded their parents to allow them to stay. I promised that I would protect the twins. I just couldn't escape the sense that Shacklebolt planned to murder Henry. Hogwarts told me in a half dozen different ways that he saw it as extremely unlikely that drastic action against the twins would be needed, but that he felt the need to be ready, in case that remote possibility arose. He saw himself as heroically taking all the potential blame and trip to Azkaban on himself and sparing both of us. I know he sincerely believes that, but it simply is not his responsibility to make such a decision, however pure and helpful he thinks his motives are."

"I understand why that event made you suspicious. I did not know what Kingsley was planning to do, and I am not at all happy about it, and I have told him so. I see Kingsley as a very honourable Wizard. However, it is possible that he thought he saw the potential for great danger from Henry and determined to deal with it solely on his own head, if that proved necessary. I agree – that wasn't his decision to make, but I'm sure he felt he was sparing us, or that we weren't tough enough to do what needed to be done. That last bit is awfully serious, isn't it?"

"Yes, I'm afraid it is. We can't have Shacklebolt murdering innocent children on his own authority, thinking he is protecting us from tough decisions. What about the purpose of sending the Muggle-born to Hogwarts? That isn't really altruism, is it? It's for our protection."

"It's a mixture of the two. Life would be very difficult for a magical child in the Muggle world, especially a child with no knowledge of magic or how it worked. It would be a terrible fate. Since many agree with you that the magical Muggle-borne children spring from the squibs, whom our society has abandoned, we naturally feel an obligation to salvage their lives. You are correct that a lot of untamed Witches and Wizards running around Muggle society would be a threat to us all. So, yes, I think there is a strong motive of self-protection behind our policies regarding Hogwarts."

Harry's next question surprised me. I was even more surprised when Hermione reacted as if she hadn't previously considered the question. Harry asked: "There aren't a lot of Muggle-borne among the second years. I know of only one. There are a few first years and that is still low, but not as many as normal. We know the Death Eaters didn't bring them to Hogwarts while they were in power – they didn't want them anywhere near our world. So… where are they and why haven't they caused a lot of problems in the Muggle world with all of that wild magic."

Dad got a sour look on his face as he explained. "Mostly, they're dead. That was a big problem with the Muggle government, who finally suspected that we were responsible. It was the old slander brought back to life, but this time it was true. Witches and Wizards murdering children. When the Death Eater government detected magic from inside a Muggle home, instead of inviting the child to Hogwarts, they sent a Death Eater to kill the child. After a while it was just too many unexplained deaths of young children for the Muggle government to ignore. Then Thicknesse made it plain enough what was happening, even declaring it a necessary act to protect both societies. 'We don't want them, and you certainly won't be able to control them' is what he told Tony. It was the horrible companion to the Death Eaters searching our community for Muggle-born. Since our community couldn't see them killing the magical children in the Muggle world, there was nothing to stop the Death Eaters."

"And why wasn't I told of this? How many children were killed? They would have only been nine or ten years old."

"We don't think we are aware of every murder, but we know of nineteen. Fourteen would be second years now and five would be first years. I didn't tell you, because I didn't want to burden you as much as I have been burdened by this knowledge. It was too great a shame on my generation. It wasn't something you could fix, and it was over. Kingsley didn't inform me of the situation until I was Minister and he had been in his new job for a week. Talking that out and working with Tony to do what we could to make up for what the Death Eaters had done – that's one reason I was always with Kingsley. It was our shared dirty little secret. We had done nothing wrong, but just knowing about that program made us feel very dirty. That's why I'm even more shocked than you that Kingsley would consider murdering Henry. In his defence, this whole situation with the arresting and murdering of the Muggle-born has weighed very heavily upon Kingsley. He drinks far more than he ever did to cope, and it has him very worried about another Voldemort. That's also one of the reasons I worry as much as I do."

"That's quite a secret," Mum told Dad. "I can well understand that it would have you out of sorts. You should have shared that with me, I could have helped. Hermione's Mum could still help. You weren't responsible for what the Death Eaters did. You've spent your entire adult life fighting them. You shouldn't feel guilty. I really think you need to mention this to McGonagall. It falls under her department and should influence how we handle identification of wild talents from the Muggle world. I never dreamed it could result in so much evil."

"Really, it is a guilt that all Wizards must share, just as is the story that Hermione discovered about the old Muggle-born of Grindelwald House. It's something our society allowed to continue. There is something about us that produced Voldemort and allowed him to flourish. It is a shared shame. It is far too easy to pass it all off onto Voldemort. It's why Tony can't trust us to run our own affairs and why telling him about the stone is going to be so tricky. Much of the money that Lucius rounded up for us went to the families of the murdered children. They don't know that it was Wizards who killed their children, but they know something was wrong and now we have done what little we can to recompense them. It has been a big burden on Tony. He couldn't say we killed the children, so he has had to take the blame as 'government accidents – defence experiments gone awry. Some of the children, another dozen or so, were merely rendered unable to speak or function. That was blamed on vaccines. It was an awful, sordid business. Even trying to set it right makes me feel totally soiled.

"Harry's next big question was why you weren't told about the purpose of sending the Muggle-borne to Hogwarts. I don't think any of us is told officially. It is something that just is, and even the Minister or headmaster is never explicitly told. I think it is something that most of us gradually figure out, just as you have. For us, as for you, there is doubt about whether our perception is real or simply a matter of being overly suspicious. I think you're right, but I don't know for certain that you are. This is like the owning of Elves and the preferential treatment Hogwarts gives to the Slytherins, really that our whole society does. It is bad, but it is just accepted as the natural way of things. So, now you know some of my worst secrets and I'm sorry I didn't mention most of this much earlier. Now for your secrets.

"I don't want to sound overly hurt when I say this, but don't the four of you trust Molly and me with the location of your hideout? Can't you come to us to share your fears?"

"I think we do trust you, and we would certainly take you there if the need arose, but the fewer people who know, the better. Your aurors are always with you. They're right outside the door now, which is why Hermione brought Snape's privacy device. I trust Bill and Barb. They pledged to the Light Guardian to defend us, but they report through Shacklebolt, and at some future time, I will no longer be Deputy Minister or head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. It's not that I distrust Kingsley as Kingsley. It's that I distrust the sort of people who Kingsley tends to trust. That's not totally true. I think the incident with the Spencer's, coupled with Ginny's little-understood new talents associated with the stone, could lead Kingsley to harm Ginny, if he decides she is potentially dangerous. He could just murder her or have his personal aurors murder her if he felt it was for the greater good – if he thought that a Mother of the Future was too dangerous to have in our times – if he thought she and her Muse could result in Witches having more power and aurors not being at the top of the Ministry heap. As you know, I reviewed the records of the three members of Kingsley's special auror squad. There was nothing remotely special about them, save his perception of their absolute loyalty to him, although oddly enough, under questioning the auror I fired admitted that he has no loyalty to Kingsley and greatly dislikes you and me - he wants a return to the old order. Even ignoring that, none of these guys is the guy you'd choose to solve a particularly complicated case or deal honestly with an extremely delicate person or situation, or to capture especially skilled fighters. They are very ordinary plodding aurors who were thrilled to get this promotion and attention from Kingsley. I do trust the two members of that squad who remain, although one is on probation and protecting Barnabas Cuffe."

Wow! That last comment caught me totally by surprise. As I thought about it quickly, I agreed with Harry that Kingsley could be a threat to Hermione and me. I was a little disappointed that Harry hadn't shared, these concerns with me, but then considered the context of his statement and concluded that he had spoken this fear at the very moment it had fully formed in his head – sort of an unidentified nagging dread suddenly become reality. I realised I was missing what Harry was saying. I found my thinking on this had caused me to miss some more of the conversation.

"… wrong way. I certainly do trust you enough to share my worries. In part, I don't want to seem stupid or crazy if I bring what prove to be baseless worries. In part, you've been so worried and upset that you've not been very approachable, and I haven't wanted to add my own fears on top of yours. That didn't seem at all fair. On the other hand, while I certainly trust Molly and you as yourself and Minister, I've not been quite as sure that I can trust you not to share what I say to you with Shacklebolt. You are extremely close to Shacklebolt. It's like you feel you still have a duty to not keep any secrets from him and to not act without his approval. Well, I know that he keeps big secrets from you as well as me. I know he takes untrustworthy aurors into his deepest confidence. I know that some of your first government's secrets passed straight from Shacklebolt, to his pet personal aurors, to the Death Eaters and Grindelwald's. I trust you, but I really don't trust Shacklebolt. I'm coming to realise why Madam Bones and the Sisterhood felt they needed to move against him."

"I do want you to feel free to talk to me at any time. I promise that I will stop over-sharing with Kingsley. You are correct that he has kept things from both of us, which we needed to know. I can see that the Witches won't ever fully trust our administration if they think Kingsley is pulling the strings behind the scene. You and I need to meet alone more often. Really, the six of us should meet, without Kingsley. I think talking out our concerns would help me as well as you. Everyone imagines problems from time to time, but your intuition has been far too accurate in the past for me to ignore it or to tune you out because of an occasional blooper. I take your point on Kingsley. I ordered you to keep my daughter safe, so I guess I can't object too strenuously if you take steps in that direction. You have my permission to leave your aurors when you believe it necessary, although I think it would be best if you sat down with them and discussed the potential future problems. I think we should meet with Barb and Bill and tell them that they report directly to you and that I don't want them to pass anything up the line to Kingsley without your or my permission. If they have a problem regarding you, they should come straight to me, rather than Kingsley. Does that help?"

Harry indicated that it did.

"I'm sorry that our worries and differing personalities have driven us apart. I respect you more than anyone else in my government. I know that you respect me more than my family does and…"

"You know that's not true, Arthur." Molly immediately objected. "We all love and respect you. You are a great husband, father, and Minister. You've just been holding too much inside yourself of late. We all want to help you."

"I know that. But you've not recognised the vital side of me as much as Harry has. I'm quite effective as Minister and was a very creative Wizard before that. I fear that I hid too much of myself from you, as well as from the world at large, in order to keep my family safe. You know I love to tinker with Muggle artefacts, but you haven't put together how much effort I've spent trying to marry magic to Muggle technology. Next to my family, that has been my abiding passion. I've had some successes. Has any other Wizard ever produced a car that could be flown to Hogwarts? Have you ever stopped to think how many magical improvements were necessary to accomplish this? I'm the Wizard who created the shop at the Ministry. I've harnessed several Muggle gadgets. As a cover, I had to subject myself to a certain amount of ridicule as the man who dealt with the exploding Muggle toilets.

"I'm sorry that this embarrassed my family, but it was a ruse to keep you safe. If the Wizarding world knew what I was doing, you would have all been in great danger. The twins helped me, by rigging the toilets to explode, although they never knew why. They just saw it as a shared prank. The department, which I headed isn't glamorous. Wizard families don't tell their children to aspire to it. It is every bit as important as the Auror Corps and requires just as much knowledge. I always had at least two assistants, generally three. We didn't just chase after exploding toilets. When there was an incident, such as we just had with young Henry, my department was called upon to Confund the Muggles who has seen too much.

"We moved in Muggle society far better than the aurors. So, when there was a suspicion of Wizards conspiring with Muggles, we took the lead. If the wrong Wizards hid, or hid their wealth, in the Muggle world, we were involved. If a Wizard used Muggle weapons, we were called in. When the aurors needed to pass in the Muggle world, we got them phony credentials, appropriate clothes, a place to live. We tutored them in how to act. We had contacts among the Muggle police. We all had false identities as Muggles. I did a very important job, but much of it had to remain secret, for security reasons.

"This is really just a long-winded way of saying we all love each other, so we should trust each other and work together. Believe me, Harry, no Wizard knows better than I the pain and increased difficulty we cause ourselves and others through excessive secret keeping. I am just beginning to fully appreciate that, and I am far older than you. We each have something to bring to the table. I think that some of my inventions will work very well, if we can draw on the power of Ginny's stone. If we work together, we can accomplish great things on all fronts and have a lot more fun doing so. Being Minister and Deputy Minister should not be as big a destroyer of joy as we have allowed.

"Now, I really do need to hear about the stone from Ginny and Hermione. Is the stone a weapon? Is it a danger to us? Can you control it and are you safe around it?"

"It has very great power, far more than we initially thought, but it is not a weapon. I'm almost certain it is not a danger to us. It is the major manifestation of the Light Guardian left in our world. It links this world to the other worlds with magical creatures. We've just discovered how huge and complex the stone is. It's filled with tiny wires and crystals and extends halfway to the centre of our world. I think that Hermione and I can learn to control the stone, as we process our memories. We learned a lot more over the past several days. We don't understand enough of it yet. I'm glad that you all are concerned about my safety, but the Mother of the Future has an important role and it certainly involves risk and walking into a certain amount of danger. So does being a Keeper. I willingly accepted both roles. You all need to allow me to spread my wings and learn about my new roles. The more I know, the more power and understanding I will possess, and the safer I will be. I am trying very hard to avoid all unnecessary risks. Please try to respect my judgment. I know you are upset that I go into the passageway to the control landing. That room belongs primarily to the Mother and her Muse. We must fully understand it. We did discover an escape route. I suspect we will find many others. The stone and transporter can surely move us from that spot, despite the Hogwarts defences. It is far smarter and far more powerful."

"I totally believe that the stone is friendly," Hermione declared. "We should know more in a few days."

"I can accept that. We'll have to think hard about how much to tell the Committee. I am determined to keep control of it. Your headmaster believes that since the pyramid and stone are beneath Hogwarts, that the school and she are their rightful owner. I am trying to disabuse her of that notion.

"Now, to raise the headmaster's question – what are we going to do with Harry's grandmother? I understand that you don't feel it safe for her to return to her home."

"That's correct," Harry confirmed. "I don't understand why Roderick is so interested in her. I don't know where else to re-locate her now. I don't know what to do with Dudley either. We told him to hide out, rather than returning to his new home. Catta is protecting him."

"That's good, although a little strange that we both instinctively trust Elves more than the Auror Corps. I think you should dispatch an Elf to guard your grandmother's house. Now, I think we need to let the others in on what we've discussed. Do you trust Neville, George, and Luna enough to tell them everything we've said? How about Cissy and Margaret?"

"I trust Cissy and Margaret, but perhaps we should save them for another day and give them a censored version. They are both very young and Cissy is too addicted to adventuring. She's a lot better, but far from perfect at keeping secrets. She's also too close to the twins."

"Okay, I'll send for the others."

We reviewed everything with them and agreed that we would all work together. We would have a committee by way of a weekly family dinner. Neville, of course, was family. We met with Bill and Barb and then with Bill and Barb, along with Shacklebolt. Shacklebolt admitted that he had been terrified when he first learned of Henry. He thought he might need to die, before he caused great harm. He admitted that it was very wrong of him to think that he, or anyone, could just decide like that. He promised to follow the chain of command in the future. He was chagrined to learn of the revised working arrangements for Barb and Bill saying, "I won't deny that I'm hurt by a certain lack of trust that this represents, but I can't deny that my actions have raised doubts. I hope Harry will still seek out my advice. You too, Arthur. I think I am making great progress vetting the Corps. Almost all the bad apples were already gone. I will be less trusting of the lads going forward. That Liar's Milk trick really undid me."

The last meeting of the day was the hardest. McGonagall was told the same censored version of the truth as I planned to convey to Cissy and Margaret. Although she welcomed the knowledge and accepted it as a measure of progress, I sensed that it had merely whetted her appetite for more.

As if reading my mind, she responded, "That does answer some of my questions. I know you are starting to think of me as over-controlling and mad for power. I just have a thirst for knowledge and protectiveness toward the students. I know that I can be of help to you. I will lead Hogwarts and be a supporter in your other ventures. There are a few things you must understand about me.

"I know that the more I know and understand, the better I will do as a teacher and as a headmaster. I will always fight for all my students – even the very imperfect ones, if I see hope for them to turn their lives around. That's why I'm so insistent about not giving up on Pansy. I know that Hogwarts is very, very important to our world and that I have been chosen as headmaster to defend it. Some of you have somewhat turned against Hogwarts, because of the Carrows and Snape. That is only natural, but as you recoil, I am drawn closer and made more determined to save our school. Hogwarts has endured a lot in its many years. I won't see it destroyed by what the Death Eaters did. That would be handing them an unearned victory. I know we will have our disagreements, but please believe that my heart is in the right place. I'm not perfect, but neither are you. I have learned from my many mistakes. You can learn from them, as well. I support the Minister and Deputy Minister wholeheartedly, but I won't hesitate to persuade you to do what I feel is correct.

"Finally, I really do know that I don't own the stone and that I am not its chosen intermediary. You should know how much that awesome presence beneath my school frightens me. I just know that, like the Circle in the Sacred Cavern, it has vast powers. Those powers could help save Hogwarts or they could destroy it. I must be certain that the students are safe. That is why I feel that I must be involved with it. I am not horning in on 'your thing'. I'm defending 'my thing'."

We told McGonagall that we viewed her as an ally and would be happy to continue working with her, but that she had to tone down the level of insistent urgency with which she addressed everything to us. She said she would try, but that it wouldn't be at all easy.

The meeting ended with Dad responding curtly: "Try harder."

As we headed back to our own apartment, I was surprised when Harry asked, "Was everyone telling the truth?"

"Yes, they were, Harry. Whom did you suspect?"

"Nobody in particular, it just pays to be cautious."

My last comment to Harry, before we fell asleep that night, caught him equally by surprise. "What my Dad said – did you realise that his job was as important as it was and that he accomplished so much?"

"Yes, but I spend a lot of business time with your father. Your time with him was family time. He wanted to protect you. He doesn't want you to work in his old department. He thinks it's too dangerous. He just wants to be your Dad. He doesn't feel the need to impress you with what he does at the Ministry."

"I respect that, but it still leaves me feeling very ashamed that I so totally underestimated my own father's skill and accomplishments. To think, I almost agreed when Ron said he was too weak. I feel really bad – both disloyal as well as stupid and blind."

It would have been nice, had Harry elected to contradict me.