(June 30th Headmaster's office)

(Morning)

"Calm down Severus. We don't know that." Albus said trying to get the potions master to stop ranting.

"He said it would be gone today. It's today and it isn't gone!" Snape snarled. "Therefore: Potter lied."

"Today isn't over yet." Dumbledore said reassuringly. "Just have a little more patience."

(Evening)

"I don't know Severus!" Dumbledore groaned and rubbed his temples, it had been a long irritating day. "Technically it is the thirtieth until midnight. Maybe he was being very literal."

(Midnight)

"You woke me up for this!" Dumbledore demanded angrily. "I don't know and I really don't care right now. I'm going back to sleep. We can talk in the morning."

"But-" Snape started.

"But nothing." Dumbledore glared. "Even if I were to agree with you completely what would you have me do? Go barging into Grimmauld Place, throwing my weight around and making demands? Don't you remember how well that worked for you?" Snape took a breath to retort but Dumbledore silenced him first. "Go. To. Sleep."

HPCOC

(July 1st)

Harry was standing in the den with Hermione under his right arm and Tonks under his left. Both girls had their arms wrapped tightly around him and were showing no signs of letting go anytime soon. Harry found the act to be very cute but it was starting to get old. He sighed. "I'll be back next weekend."

"That's twelve days." Hermione complained.

"That's practically forever." Tonks added.

"Don't go." Hermione moved her head as though she were trying to burrow into Harry.

"Pwease." Tonks plead and Hermione stopped. Together they both pouted up at him with big sad eyes.

It was too much for Harry and he started laughing which in turn made the girls break character and join in, even though they didn't let go. It was while they were laughing that Sirius and Gwenog walked in. After waiting for the kids to finish Gwenog pulled a list out of her pocket. "Harry, did you get everything?"

"Yes Gwen." Harry replied dryly.

"Where is it?" Gwenog asked, casually noticing the emptiness of the room.

"A house-elf already took it." Harry said.

"Oh, okay. But we should still go over the list one more time, just in case." Gwenog smirked and winked to the girls after Harry groaned and closed his eyes.

"Fine." Harry grumbled.

"Toothbrush?" Gwenog asked cheerfully.

"Check." Harry replied tonelessly.

"Boxers?"

"Gwen!" Harry hissed and felt some of his sand activate.

"Did you forget those?" Sirius asked grinning as Hermione and Tonks giggled.

Harry knew there was no good response to that and was thankful that their visitor had reached the door as they knocked loudly on the front door. Sirius shrugged. "I'll get it."

Gwenog nodded as Sirius walked out of the room and as he left he could here her move on and continue with her list. He was laughing to himself quietly while he walked to the door. He opened it cheerfully and found the snarling visage of Severus Snape waiting on the other side.

"Where is that lying little bastard?" Snape demanded and started to enter the house.

Sirius slammed the door closed and heard a yelp of pain from the other side. Without a moment of hesitation he activated the wards on the house and brought them up to full siege mode. As he walked back to the den the floo bricked itself over and shutters started slamming closed throughout the house. In the den he found that the four he had left behind all had decided to draw their wands and watch the door cautiously from defensive positions.

"Who was it?" Gwenog asked nervously.

"Jehovah's Witness." Sirius shrugged.

"Really?" Hermione frowned. "Even for a joke this seems a tad excessive."

"No, it was Snape." Sirius admitted.

"Good work." Harry nodded appreciatively and relaxed. He put his wand away and check the time. "I really should get going." Once everyone had said their goodbyes, and the girls hugged him again, Harry pulled his time turner out and warped away while holding it in his hand.

"Ooooh." Tonks said as everyone was fooled by the expectation runes. "It's his portkey."

HPCOC

"Alright." Harry clapped his hands together as he and six house-elves entered his work room. "I'm going to need a lot of space so these two middle tables need to be moved. Everything that is on top of them can get moved to the blood jar counter. Since progress has stopped on those the blood jars can be moved to storage until I have an idea or something." Harry tapped his chin in thought, still disappointed at his inability to make the Philosopher's Stone grow and still function. "The floor will need to be scrubbed and cleansed, of course, and I'll need my carving tools brought down."

"Yes sir, Harry Potter Sir." The elves chorused eagerly.

"Good." Harry morphed into one of his Nick faces. "While you're doing that I'm going to go pick up my test blanks and some easels."

HPCOC

Dumbledore sighed as he walked into the hospital wing, where Professor Sprout was doing her best to fix Snape's foot, her abilities in this field were very limited though. "That's the best I can do Severus. I think it is broken. You should really go to St. Mungo's."

"How did you manage to break your foot?" Dumbledore asked despite knowing the answer.

"I didn't do anything. That bastard Black—"

"I told you not to go there." Dumbledore frowned.

"But he-"

"No buts. Potter threatened to press charges if you harass them about this. I have no doubts that he would be more than happy to follow through." Dumbledore glared. "He did this to upset you and playing along with him isn't going to help you."

Sprout gathered her things and hurried out of the room with a suppressed smile threatening to break through. Dumbledore paced agitatedly next to the bed. "You will let this go and I'll handle it. I have a committee meeting in a few minutes. With some luck and a lot of patience I might be able to get Sirius to give me a time frame. I have little hope of being able to do anything to shorten it though."

"Then what should I do?" Snape asked.

"You should go to St. Mungo's and be quiet." Dumbledore snapped and walked away.

Snape sat there for twenty more minutes plotting his revenge before he made his way to St. Mungo's.

HPCOC

Test Number 1:

Harry labeled the paper once everything was set up. His diamond was on a pedestal in the center of the room with test blanks surrounding it. The design indicated how the killing curse would be broken down and which pieces would be sent where. As such he picked three blanks to be his targets, each with a spare on either side in case some calibration is needed.

Harry stood confidently in his spot and leveled his wand at the diamond. "Avada Kedavra." He incanted and watched the beam of lime green light connect with the diamond. As planned the curse was caught by the diamond and trapped, forming a strong connection between the stone and Harry's wand while drawing energy directly from Harry in order to charge the stone. After several seconds of charging three new beams of light left the diamond and struck their targets. One was bright yellow, the second was dark green and the third was white. The purpose of the testing is to find out which one of those affects the soul.

Unfortunately for Harry his easels weren't very sturdy. Harry sighed and picked up his quill.

Seems to have gone well, test blanks broke when the easels fell.

Test Number 2:

Harry set his quill down and walked into the test area to reset everything and make the easels stronger.

HPCOC

"Sorry I'm late. There was an..." Dumbledore trailed off as he walked into the committee meeting and found that Lucius Malfoy and Barty Crouch were in a heated argument. Dumbledore walked up next to Ludo Bagman, who had Sirius on his other side. "What's this about?"

"Well, Lucius in convinced that the maze during the third task needs to be really long so that tension can build while the audience can't see anything that is happening." Bagman said. "Crouch on the other hand thinks that it needs to be short so that the audience doesn't grow bored with having nothing to see."

"And they're bickering like children about it?" Dumbledore asked irritatedly. This would make it more difficult to mine for information.

"I think there is something we're missing." Sirius commented. "I tried to offer my opinion and they both started yelling at me until I backed away."

"NO!" Crouch yelled. "If it is that long there will be no way to predict who will get to the cup first."

"But if it is too short the first person in will get to the cup without anyone else having a chance." Lucius glared and added an insult under his breath. "You incompetent shit-stain."

"Oh we'll see who the incompetent one is." Crouch growled and stood up. "We'll all see!"

Crouch stormed out of the room in the silence that followed. Sirius shook his head sadly and started moving towards the table. "Way to be a cliché Barty."

HPCOC

(Early evening)

Test Number 47: Results consistent. It has taken most of the day but I feel that I am ready to move on to a live trial.

Harry took a few minutes to record the exact results off of the blanks. Once that was finished he started moving things around in the room. All of the extra test blanks were removed and two more pedestals were added. Harry had carefully marked the direction that the white soul beam goes and carefully moved one of the new pedestals into line with it. Then he retrieved his notebook and started transcribing his runes and diagrams. Two hours later his was finished and carefully floated the last pedestal into place.

He stepped back and checked the whole thing over a second time, then called Marny for boxes 7 and 27, the ring of house Gaunt and Ravenclaw's diadem respectively. The diadem was placed on the second pedestal and the ring on the third. Harry didn't have any way to test it but in theory the soul beam should force the horcrux out of the diadem and into the ring without harming either in the process. With no small amount of trepidation Harry moved back to his mark and aimed his wand. "Avada Kedavra."

Everything went perfectly right up until the moment the beam hit the diadem. Harry expected the piece of Voldemort's soul to be immediately expelled causing the connection to break. Instead the connection grew stronger pulling more and more magic from Harry and through the diamond. Harry's wand started shaking as the seconds dragged on.

A scream emanated from the diadem, oddly harmonic and if Harry was listening to it intently he would have heard that it was two voices instead of one. A large white orb covered with a black film slowly emerged from the diadem. The runes on the floor lit up as a shimmering tunnel appeared between the diadem and the ring. The tunnel was actually a shield that would prevent the soul fragment from rejoining with Voldemort instead of moving into the ring. Time seemed to drag on as Harry kept up his output and waited for the process to be over. Finally they met and the orb was quickly sucked into the ring thereby ending the connection.

The excess magic suddenly reversed direction and rushed back upstream towards Harry. Harry saw a bright light and then heard a loud pop. He suddenly found himself falling to the floor in a great deal of pain. Landing was worse.

Unable to breathe Harry touched his chest with his right hand and lifted it away, grimacing at the sight of a large amount of blood dripping off his hand. Oh, that isn't good. Harry thought as he started losing consciousness. Harry quickly brought his left hand up to meet his right and yanked the vial of Elixir of Life out of his wand holster. He barely managed to swallow it before the darkness claimed him.

"Harry Potter Sir!" The worried voice was the first thing that filtered through to Harry's waking mind.

"Uuhg." Harry groaned and opened his eyes to see himself surrounded by worried elves. He blinked at them twice. "I'm okay."

"He's alive!" Marny screamed happily and all of the elves cheered.

A few minutes later they settled down enough for Harry to ask about what happened. Once the magical back surge reached the diamond it quickly overloaded the crystal's structure. This resulted in a catastrophic failure and the diamond violently broke into two pieces and sent shards flying around the room. Harry had been hit by seven of the bullet-like projectiles, three in the gut, two in the chest, one to his right thigh and the last deflected off his cheekbone. His left lung and diaphragm were punctured and all in all Harry was happy to still be alive.

Harry picked up his wand and looked it over, finding no apparent damage he walked over and examined the diadem. He was about to ask Marny to go get the horcrux detector but found that the elf was a step ahead of him. There was no reaction to the diadem and a huge reaction to the ring several paces away. Grinning he dropped the detector back into its box and picked the diadem up. "Let's see what the legendary source of wisdom is really all about."

Harry set the diadem on his brow and for a moment nothing happened, then he felt the sensation of falling into a pensieve. Harry found himself being forced to replay every memory where he did anything immoral. Every half truth he told and every trick he played. Everything he stole or destroyed selfishly. It took a while and by the end Harry was laughing happily. Then, just as quickly as it started, Harry found himself back in control, standing right where he was.

"Really, you're just a glorified guilt trip?" Harry scoffed and took the diadem off to glare at it. "I expected better than that from you." Harry dropped it back on its pedestal and walked away. He got half way to the ring before he turned back. "I can't accept that. I have to have missed something."

Harry prepared himself to withdraw into the inside of his mind during the delay before the memories start playing. With a determined scowl he gently lowered the diadem back onto his head. A torrent of information began flowing into Harry's mind, completely out of control. He screamed in agony, then tore the diadem off and threw it across the room.

"Umm, you should come in here." The voice of the older version of Harry said from within the youngster's mind.

Harry closed his eyes and slipped into his mind. The room that was normally so clean and organized, with all of the information in its place, was now in complete disarray. A pile of thousands of books took up a large amount of space and next to it stood Older Harry looking at the pile, completely overwhelmed.

"What's this?" Young Harry asked in spite of having a very strong suspicion.

"That is half a second of transferring knowledge from the diadem." Older Harry sighed.

"That's what I thought." Harry nodded. "This is going to take forever."

"Too bad we can't just let it make as big of a mess as it wants to and spend years cleaning it all up." Older Harry nodded and picked up a book. "That'd certainly drive us insane."

"Says the man who only exists in my head." Harry snickered. Together they started the process of sorting the first wave of information. After what felt like days inside his mind, but was merely minutes outside, Harry found himself staring at the book in his hands with complete awe. "OLD MAN! GET OVER HERE!"

"What is it?" Older Harry asked as he rushed over.

"The owner's manual!" Harry said grinning.

"For what?"

"The diadem!"

"You mean..?"

"Yea, probably!" Harry nodded.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Older asked then grabbed the book out of Harry's hand and shoved it into his head.

"Merlin, I hate it when you do that!" Younger Harry objected and rubbed his temples.

"Oh, quit being such a baby." Older rolled his eyes.

"Oy!" Harry glared.

"So is there something wrong with the diadem or not?" Older rolled his eyes.

"Hang on." Harry growled and concentrated for a few moments. "Oh shit."

"What?"

"Actually this explains a lot." Harry muttered. "But who to use?"

"What are you talking about?" Older huffed.

"Oh, right. Well, Ravenclaw's Diadem could also have been called 'Ravenclaw's Horcrux'" Harry said and older Harry's jaw dropped. "Only not. You see, Rowena ran into this same problem, where anyone else who wore the diadem went insane from the volume. She worked out how to extract most of her soul without killing anyone and added it to the diadem so that it could act as a librarian of sorts. Rather impressive actually, and she left instructions on how to do it again."

"So what, we need to steal someone's soul in order to use it?" Older frowned.

"Exactly, and I know just who to use." Harry grinned evilly. "We have everything we need too."

"Right, well I knew my time with you would end eventually." Older Harry sighed in resignation.

"You?" Harry laughed. "No, not you. There is one person whose disappearance will further my current goals and stop future problems."

"Tell me." Older Harry pressed.

"Just wait until a little later tonight. You'll see when I pick him up." Harry smirked.

"I could just go digging through your thoughts and find it for myself." Older Harry crossed his arms.

"Yes, yes you could." Younger Harry winked and moved back into the real world.

"Little brat." Older Harry grumbled and continued sorting the pile that only had a couple dozen volumes remaining.

HPCOC

Harry watched for a moment as several elves worked on cleaning up the pool of blood that Harry had been lying in a short while ago. He didn't know what cleaner they were using but he didn't like the smell. He started to walk towards the door when Marny popped in.

"Harry Potter sir. Something has happened, I don't know whether or not it is a problem." Marny said nervously and pulled on his ears.

"Great, today hasn't had enough problems. What's wrong now?" Harry asked sarcastically.

"The blood jars were left in direct sunlight all day. One of them reacted." Marny said and a second elf popped in holding a jar filled with an amber colored liquid that held an orange stone in suspension. "This used to be dragon's blood."

"Oh wow." Harry said and took the jar and held it up to the light. The stone was about the size of his thumb, it hadn't grown anymore, just changed color. "I'll have to examine this more closely later."

Harry carried the jar out of the room and made his way towards his study, the light was better in there for working on small things and Harry had some runes to carve. At least that was the plan. A shard of diamond had slid under the door and when Harry stepped on it he slid just enough to make him think he was falling. He windmilled one arm, which was enough to keep him on his feet but also enough to drop the jar. He just stared down at the pieces dumbly before something warm ran down the outside of his leg.

"Bleeding? Again?" Harry groaned as he looked down. "Really?"

It was just a shallow cut across the outside of his calf, nothing serious. Harry rolled his eyes and morphed to stop the bleeding. The elves that were cleaning in the other room looked over, eager to start on the new mess. "Leave this. I want to take a sample of that liquid before it gets more contaminated." Harry ordered and flew to the nearest bathroom to wash out his wound.

HPCOC

(9pm)

Harry just finished carving runes along the length of one of the dementor's ribs. Ravenclaw was truly brilliant. According to what Harry learned it had only taken her a week to figure out how to pull her soul out. In hindsight it was perfectly obvious that the best way was to use a piece of a creature who performs the desired function already.

There was only one piece left in his plan, and for that he asked Marny to bring him a Gobbledegook to English Dictionary.

HPCOC

Draco Malfoy's summer was going very slowly. He'd only been there for a little over a week and it was a nightmare. Even after two years his parents hadn't gotten over the fact that he was a Gryffindor and they wouldn't stop patronizing him. He would have just ignored them and stayed in his room but they continued to expect him to be a perfect pureblood prince still. This meant that during the evenings while his parents were reading he was forced to join them in the den and study.

Draco didn't mind studying but being forced to be around people who no longer liked him was annoying. Every few lines Draco would look up and glare at one of his parents for a few moments before going back to his reading. The time came for him to glare again so he looked up at Lucius' chair.

"Father?" Draco asked in confusion, the chair was empty when it had been holding his father mere moments ago.

HPCOC

"Where the hell am I?" Lucius demanded.

"Here." A disembodied voice said just before Lucius was stunned. Harry chuckled and took his invisibility cloak off. He folded it up carefully and set it on his desk. "Levicorpus." Harry said casually and levitated Lucius by his ankle out of Harry's study and down to his workshop, where the mess wouldn't matter so much.

Harry conjured some chains, with manacles, and hung them from the ceiling. After locking Lucius' hands into place Harry canceled his spell and let Lucius' arms take his whole weight. Then, with a moment of forethought, Harry vanished Lucius' shirt.

Harry had so many things he wanted to tell Lucius. Harry wanted him to know that his soul was about to be enslaved forever to whomever wishes to use the diadem. Harry wanted to tell him that Lucius' mind wasn't needed and would actually make things worse. Harry wanted to tell Lucius about the future and the plans Harry had made for the coming war.

Harry wanted to tell Lucius a lot of things, but Lucius was unconscious and monologues were never a good idea. Instead Harry just obliviated Lucius of everything. Lucius would have died right there if it weren't for the fact that the medulla obbligato controlled the heart and lungs.

A few minutes of drawing runes on the floor and moving the diadem in close was all that was needed to complete the ritual. Without hesitating Harry plunged the dementor's rib into Lucius' abdomen and leaped out of the way.

It was eerie watching as Lucius thrashed against his restraints without making a sound. And Ravenclaw did this to herself? Harry thought in amazement as a ribbon of silvery gas appeared at the end of the rib. The ribbon calmly floated across the gap and connected with the diadem. With a loud slurping sound the ribbon that was Lucius' soul was sucked into the diadem leaving a very small amount behind.

Once Harry removed the rib and poured a little Elixir of Life down Lucius' throat the hole in his guts sealed up nicely. He followed that with a charm of dubious legality, designed to purge the foreign magic from Lucius' body so none of Harry's spells could be detected.

Now for some misdirection. Harry thought and took out the piece of paper that had the phrase 'worthless sack of crap' translated into Gobbledegook. Using a large knife Harry carved the words into Lucius' chest. It wasn't a phrase that goblins ever used, but with the prevalent racism in the ministry that would probably be overlooked.

Once Harry was finished he stepped back and admired his work. Now the distasteful part. Harry sighed and conjured a steel pipe. Harry already lifted it over his head before he rethought his plan. Malfoy doesn't deserve this. Harry thought in disgust and dropped the pipe.

"Could four elves come here please?" Harry asked and conjured three more pipes as they arrived. "Excellent. I want you to beat this man to death with these pipes."

"Yes sir, Harry Potter sir!" They saluted and picked up the pipes.

That's what Malfoy deserves. Harry thought smugly as he walked away and heard the first impact. While the elves were busy Harry moved around the workshop, the ring went back into storage while the diadem and broken diamond were moved up to his study. Finally he moved on to the dragon's blood.

Harry specifically avoided this door when he brought Lucius down so that he wouldn't have to worry about slipping in it. If he had come this way he would have noticed then that the whole mess was glowing red and slowly shrinking. Since he waited though he only found the stone, now bright red. Unable to believe that he got lucky Harry cast a few diagnostic charms. Everything said it was a perfect Philosopher's Stone.

"Harry Potter sir?" A voice came from behind him and Harry turned to regard the elf. Harry motioned for him to continue. "The man has died."

"Good, keep going for a couple more minutes then drop him in Knockturn Alley without being seen." Harry ordered and looked back to the stone in his hands. "Make sure not to leave any evidence. I'm going to bed."

HPCOC

Peter Pettigrew had been in Azkaban for over a year. He couldn't tell how long exactly anymore. His cell didn't have any windows and meals were given erratically. There was nothing to distinguish one day from another. Worse yet, Peter really didn't care anymore.

"What's the story with that one dementor?" A voice echoed down the hall. Peter didn't recognize it, he thought that meant it was a new person, but Peter didn't know what counted as new.

"You mean Ol' Droopy?" An older voice asked merrily. That one Peter knew.

"Um, yea, I guess."

Peter heard the scraping of a key in a lock. It must be a meal. He thought apathetically.

"No one really knows." The older said as he opened the door with a noticeable screech. "One day he was fine and then all of sudden a couple winters ago all of his bones disappeared."

"Really?" The younger guard asked.

Peter heard the tray of food hit the floor. He didn't care enough to scramble for it, none of the inmates did. Instead he just watched them lazily.

"Yes, really." The guard walked back out of the cell. "Rumor has it that the elves did it to him."

"No way." The younger denied and closed the door.

"Well, before the incident a few dementors would move through the servant quarters every time the elves got busy. They would suck all of the joy out of the elves' jobs and I think the elves got sick of it. Since no humans can speak Dementor only Ol' Droopy and the others know for sure." Peter could hear them start moving away. "But once he was found the dementors stayed far away from the elves. They won't even go into the hall with the door to the servant quarters anymore."

A few minutes after their voices faded Peter decided to eat something and moved off of his cot. He sat on the floor and stared at the door while he ate. He was halfway through his thin soup when he noticed that the line of light along the edge of the door was unbroken. He had completely finished eating before he realized what that probably meant. It took another ten minutes to get enough motivation to try it.

Peter pushed the door lightly. It opened slowly with a quiet squeak that still made Peter flinch. He didn't open the door anymore than was necessary to slip through. Once he was out he only had to take three steps before he felt the anti-animagus wards on his cell end. Thank you rusty lock. Peter thought and shifted into Wormtail.

HPCOC

(July 2nd)

While Harry was eating an early breakfast he had a couple of elves moving gold bars into a box for him. Once he was done eating and had the gold, shrunken and lightened like normal, he went to Diagon Alley. Whistling light heartedly he made his way towards Gringott's, waving to the occasional passerby. He walked confidently up to an empty teller. "Could you please tell Quartzclaw that I am here to speak with him at his earliest convenience?"

"Of course Lord Potter. If you could just wait here a moment I'll let him know." The goblin bowed and placed a closed sign at his station.

Harry wasn't waiting long before the inner door opened and Quartzclaw walked out. "Lord Potter! How nice to see you. Please come in."

"How are the wife and kids?" Harry asked as he followed.

"Wonderful, thank you for asking. My son split his first skull just three days ago." Quartzclaw said proudly.

"Wow, they sure grow up fast, don't they?" Harry nodded as they reached Quartzclaw's office.

"So what brings you here so unexpectedly?" Quartzclaw asked once the door closed.

"That's one of the best things about you goblins, not a lot of time wasted when there is business to get to." Harry grinned and pulled the two halves of the diamond out of a pocket and put them on the table. "I broke it. Apparently it couldn't take the power of a Potter. Who knew?"

Quartzclaw just stared at him.

"Anyway, I need another. Here's some gold." Harry dropped the prepared box on the desk. A few pieces of parchment followed. "And that's the updated design. Let me know when I need to come in."

Quartzclaw nodded.

"Okay, um, I'll just show myself out then if that's okay." Harry sounded a little worried about how quiet the goblin was being.

"That isn't necessary." Quartzclaw said dazed. "I can show you the way."

"After you then." Harry smiled.

A few minutes later Harry was back in Diagon Alley, all alone and wasting time. He didn't have to wait long. Soon the Daily Prophet was arriving all around the alley. Conversation quickly drew to an end as people read the front page article describing the discovery of the mutilated corpse of a well known local pureblood. As he watched he could see dirty glares directed at Gringott's and towards Knockturn Alley.

Harry's mirror started shaking. "Hey Nym." He said brightly as he answered.

"Did you hear yet?" Tonks asked and looked over his shoulder. "Where are you?"

"Diagon Alley, had to pick up a couple things. And I haven't heard about anything." Harry frowned.

"Draco's dad was murdered last night." Tonks said bluntly.

"What!" Harry shouted. "How? That's awful."

"The paper says it was the goblins." Tonks said and looked away from the mirror. "Um, 'defamatory words were viciously carved into the victim's skin in the goblin's own tongue. It is easy to see where the blame lies...' blah blah blah."

"I don't believe the goblins would do something like that." Harry shook his head and the mirror shook again. With a flick of his fingers Tonks was projected into the space in front of him and was joined by Susan. "Are you calling about the article too?"

"Yes and no." Susan shrugged. "Aunt Amy just floo'd me. While the Aurors found out last night Fudge wasn't informed until he got the newspaper. Now he is on a rampage and is working on riling up enough Aurors to go and demand the head of the responsible goblin immediately."

"Is he an idiot?" Harry groaned and turned towards Gringott's. "At least tell me they have more than some writing to base their accusations on."

"If they do Aunt Amy didn't say." Susan shrugged.

"Wonderful." Harry said sarcastically and he walked up the front stairs. He paused once he reached the top step and looked at the two guards stationed there. "You guys should really get some extra guards on standby. Trouble is coming."

"Is there a time frame?" Harry asked as he walked into the lobby.

"I don't know." Susan shook her head.

"Alright, I need to hang up now." Harry said. "Talk to you two later?"

"Okay. Bye." Susan said.

"Good luck." Tonks smiled.

"Bye." Harry said and hung up. So far so good. He thought as he walked up to the same teller from before. "Could you let the Director know that the Fudge is on his way and that if he hasn't read the front page of the Prophet yet he should." Harry paused for a moment. "I would call it urgent and bordering on emergency."

HPCOC

I really hope Potter is as well connected to the goblins as Susan thinks. Amelia thought anxiously as Fudge lead her and a large group of Aurors out of the ministry. She told him that the writing was inconclusive and that the Daily Prophet didn't count as evidence, but Fudge was known for bigotry.

As the group moved down Diagon Alley the patrons quickly moved out of their way. A few even started cheering, Amelia figured it was pretty obvious what they were doing. She couldn't help but notice that the guards at the front of the bank looked particularly alert. She stifled a sigh of relief when they entered the lobby and she saw that Harry was talking to Ragnok with a copy of the Prophet being held between them so they could both read.

"Minister Fudge!" Ragnok called across the lobby when he looked up. "Good, you're here, now we can discuss how to deal with this slander!"

"We can discuss any perceived insult after you turn over the murderer!" Cornelius answered as he closed the distance.

"Indeed, there stands the problem. We goblins are innocent of this crime and Gringott's is going to mount a full investigation to prove it." Ragnok declared. "In the meantime I want the Prophet to print a retraction of their accusation until such a time as the investigation team can draw a conclusion."

"Like hell you are!" Cornelius spat. "You'll just lie to protect yourself. If you don't cooperate with us there will be hell to pay when we find the filthy goblin who did this."

"Hey now!" Harry interjected. "There is no need for insults. Let's all just calm down and approach this rationally. First of all, is there any more evidence than this writing the Prophet talked about?"

"Amelia?" Fudge prompted.

"Nothing yet." Amelia shook her head. "The forensic team is still working though."

"But no one else would have written in gobbledegook, it had to have been a goblin!" Fudge insisted.

"Is that so?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "I know for a fact that Bartemius Crouch and several members of the Office of Goblin Relations speak gobbledegook. Merlin knows how many there are that I don't know about."

"Preposterous. Those men are upstanding members of the pureblood community." Fudge frowned.

"What was written anyway?" Ragnok asked. "The Prophet didn't elaborate."

Amelia sighed and took a piece of parchment out from the folder that one of her aids handed her. She looked it over once to make sure it was the right page and passed it to Ragnok. Ragnok looked at it for a few seconds and frowned then passed it to Harry before speaking. "How did you come to that translation?"

"I used a dictionary sir." One of the Aurors spoke up.

"This isn't a picture. Did you transcribe it too?" Harry asked.

"Yes sir." The Auror nodded.

"Doesn't that make you just as qualified to have prepared the victim as any goblin?" Harry asked pointedly.

"Uh..." The Auror trailed nervously.

"The translation is off anyway." Ragnok observed. "It's technically correct yes, but that word is 'dung' not 'crap', as in fertilizer for your garden, and what you have as 'worthless' actually means 'so inexpensive it isn't worth charging for'."

"I think I'll wait until our own expert tells me that, thank you very much." Fudge said stubbornly.

"That is a good idea." Amelia agreed. "Shacklebolt, Moody, go to Crouch's house and ask him to come assist us. He's also on that committee with Malfoy. Someone was very upset with Malfoy and Crouch might be able to tell us who."

"Are you sure about this?" Moody whispered to her after stepping in close. "You might need us here if things turn ugly."

"Hopefully lessening our forces here will make that less likely. Particularly if the biggest threats are removed. Understand?" Amelia frowned.

"Yes Ma'am." Moody nodded with a smirk. "Just making sure you thought about it."

"Right." Harry said handing the parchment off as they walked out. "While we're waiting we should discuss setting up a joint investigation team. That way everyone can get the answers they need."

"You mean so they can hide evidence?" Fudge growled.

"Damn it Fudge!" Harry shouted. "Shut up already! You're not helping anyone but you are making this whole thing take longer than it needs to."

"How dare you speak to me that way!" Fudge roared.

"I dare to do a lot of things. But that isn't the point." Harry sighed dramatically. "We're all trying to catch Malfoy's killer here, let's just work together. No one wants to see that bastard get away with it."

"But-" Fudge started but quickly changed his mind when Harry glared at him. "Fine, but there will always be an Auror present when the goblins are investigating. I'll not have the public being intimidated by them so soon after the attack."

"Very well." Ragnok growled. "But at least one goblin will be present with your Aurors too. And one will be in the office working directly alongside your people. I won't allow your human prejudices to harm my people."

"Good, this is a start." Harry smiled. "Perhaps we should move this negotiation out of the public area?"

"Um, yes." Fudge chuckled nervously as he eyed all of the civilians that had gathered. "Good idea."

It was quickly decided that four Aurors and four goblin guards would stay with Ragnok, Fudge, Amelia and Harry while the rest of the Aurors were sent back to their posts. Harry was quite please with how everything went and now he just needed a scapegoat.

HPCOC

"How did this happen?" Voldemort's wraith demanded as he floated around the room. "Did he mention anything to any of you?"

"No, my lord." His three remaining followers answered.

"Has Narcissa said anything about an affair maybe?" Voldemort asked.

"Not to me, my lord." Bellatrix replied.

"What about-" Voldemort was cut off by a knocking on the front door.

"Aurors!" Shacklebolt called clearly from outside. "Mr. Crouch, we just have a couple questions we think you can help us answer!"

"Hide!" Voldemort hissed to Bellatrix and Barty Jr. and while they hid in a closet Voldemort slipped into Sr.'s body. Voldemort quickly walked through the other room to the door and answered it. "Good morning Aurors. How can I help you?"

"It is about the murder of Lucius Malfoy. Better not discussed on the stoop. Can we come in?" Shacklebolt asked.

"Um." SHIT. "Of course. Right this way gentlemen."

Voldemort was planning on leading them to the study and away from where Bellatrix and Barty were hiding. However the moment they set foot inside Moody's paranoid nature took over and he started scanning the room with his eye. If it weren't for the limitation of only being able to see through one wall at a time he would have scanned the whole house before they knocked. Now that they were inside there was only one wall between them and the hidden death eaters.

Moody didn't recognize Barty Jr. immediately but that didn't matter. "LESTRANGE!" He bellowed and in one movement he drew his wand and cast a blasting curse at the wall. Upon later reflection he would decide that a better choice would have been to stay quiet and get out then come back later with back up.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Voldemort cast a fraction of a second later.

"MOODY!" Shacklebolt yelled and shoved the older man making the killing curse miss by a hair.

Moody hit the floor and rolled onto his good leg, reversing himself so that he was facing Crouch but keeping his eye on Lestrange and Jr. as they clamored out of the closest with many small puncture wounds each. Moody chained a reducto with a disarming charm and ended with a stunner.

Voldemort dodged the first two and let the third hit his shield before retaliating with a low fire whip. Shacklebolt jumped over the whip while firing off a piercing charm, but Moody wasn't so nimble. The flames tore through his peg leg like it wasn't even there before wrapping around the shin of his good leg. Bellatrix arrived in the room just in time to shield against the piercer and watched gleefully as Moody fell to the ground screaming while his leg went the other way.

Shacklebolt dropped on top of Moody and activated his emergency portkey getting both of them out of there before they died. Voldemort regarded the empty space in front of him for a moment before turning to the other two. "We need to leave right now."

HPCOC

"HEALER!" Shacklebolt screamed when they arrived in the ministry.

"What happened?" An Auror asked while a healer bustled towards them.

"We found LeStrange. Someone needs to run to Gringott's and get Madam Bones immediately." Shacklebolt ordered. "And we need a very big team to go secure the Crouch residence!"

HPCOC

(July 3rd)

Boy-Who-Lived averts Goblin Rebellion!

By: Rita Skeeter

The article was with a picture of Cornelius Fudge standing in front of Gringott's shaking hands with Ragnok while Harry stood behind them with one hand on each of their shoulders and a pacifying smile on his face. The picture alone was a political windfall for all three of them, but especially for Harry when combined with the article, which showered the boy in praise.

That should be me standing there with them! If only I hadn't been stuck hear dealing with Severus' whining. Dumbledore thought angrily and threw the paper onto his desk causing it to flop open to the second page. He looked down with a sigh at Bartemius Crouch's face looking back up at him.

Bartemius Crouch Wanted for the Murder of Lucius Malfoy!

Dumbledore had a hard time believe that Barty would do such a thing but he couldn't deny what Barty had done to Moody. Dumbledore even took the time to go speak with Moody and Shacklebolt in person once he heard what happened and they verified the reports. Oh Barty, how did you fall so far?