Chapter 10

Capture

Harry

A couple weeks later and Harry went with Amelia and Susan's mother Karen to go have the adoption fully approved at the Ministry.

He was a bit nervous, not because he was apprehensive of the Bones' women adopting him, but because it would mean going for the first time to the Ministry of Magic, and what's more meeting with the Minister of Magic himself.

Ordinarily an adoption would be approved by someone in Magical Child Protective Services and then a judge, but since Amelia was actually over both of those departments at the Ministry, she couldn't get legal approval from someone who she was technically the boss of.

As high up as she was, the only higher authority than that they could get approval was from the Minister of Magic himself, Cornelius Fudge and that was who they were going to go see.

Once inside the Ministry, Harry noticed that there seemed to be plenty of security precautions that Amelia had put into place, including noticing several aurors on patrol around them, who greeted Amelia politely as they passed by her.

As they walked however, Harry was constantly distracted by the many interesting things at the Ministry such as memos being flown by magical flying paper airplane every which way to various departments.

All manner of beings walked past them too. Wizards, witches, and various magical creatures such as goblins, house elves, and even a security troll that lumbered past them with a huge club.

"Come along Harry," Susan's mother Karen called for him as he had stopped to look at the fountain with statues of magical beings in the center.

"Sorry," He apologized at getting distracted as he rushed back over to them.

As they still walked, they were stopped by several witches and wizards that recognized him and tried to talk to the boy-who-lived. Amelia however shooed them away to which he was grateful.

"Do you have to deal with that everywhere you go?" Karen asked.

"Yeah pretty much," He admitted.

"Poor boy," She commented with some sympathy, "I was worried that Susan would get similar treatment when most of our family was wiped out by Death Eaters."

"Being famous for losing your family isn't exactly fun," Harry agreed.

"At least you didn't let the fame get to you," She praised him, "you seem like such a nice boy and I'm glad that Susan met you."

"I'm glad to have met her too," He told her, "you've raised a wonderful daughter."

"She really is and I think she will be the best Bones yet," Amelia agreed.

"Thank you again for doing this for me," Harry thanked them once again.

"No problem Harry, happy to do it," Karen told him with a wide smile, "I'm glad to have you become part of the family. I'm sorry Susan couldn't be a part of this, she wanted to come, but children aren't generally allowed to be at the Ministry unless they are required to for some reason such as a court case or something."

"That would be Fudge's doing not mine," Amelia argued, "personally I've been trying to get a bill passed that allows for young witches and wizards to do apprenticeships at the Ministry over the summer to get some experience and figure out what they want to do after school but Fudge doesn't see it the same way.."

"Fudge just doesn't like most children very much unless they are the children of his more important supporters that help keep him in power," Karen said with a sigh, "he probably wouldn't have wanted Harry here for this if it hadn't been for that fact that he's...well the boy-who-lived."

"Only because he wants to meet you Harry," Amelia pointed out with a grunt, "be careful of Fudge Harry, he will no doubt try to bribe you in order to get your endorsement and public support."

By now they were just getting to the Minister of Magic's office and after getting past security as well as the Minister's personal secretary, they entered Fudge's office after knocking and being granted access.

When Harry first saw the Minister of Magic, he was immediately aware of just how different the fashion sense was for Muggles and Wizards. No way the Head of State in Britain in the Muggle World would ever wear such unusual clothing.

Cornelius Fudge was dressed in a purple and orange striped suit with a matching purple bowler hat on.

"Hello Amelia," Cornelius said politely to her then turning all of his attention on him, "ah Mr. Potter, we meet at last!"

Harry looked at him for a moment before deciding he ought to be polite and say back, "pleased to meet you too Minister Fudge."

Minister Fudge seemed to be looking at him like he had just won some sort of trophy as he said jovially, "well then not everyday the Minister of Magic gets to meet the Great Harry Potter is it?"

"No, I suppose not," Harry agreed, "I've read and heard all about you though."

In truth he hadn't exactly heard or read about a lot of good things about Fudge as Minister, in truth from what he could tell he was a bit of bumbling fool that was just good at campaigning and tricking the masses into voting for him...but then again that seemed to be true of most politicians.

Still Fudge considered what he had said to him as a compliment as he smiled widely.

Amelia however he knew did not like him despite the fact that he was technically her boss and she suspected the feeling was mutual as Fudge feared that she might try to take his job from him, which she really didn't have any interest in doing as she hated politics. She in fact often complained about her current job as it meant too much paperwork and not enough action and she was getting fat from sitting at her desk all the time.

However she was really good at her job which was why Fudge kept her around despite considering her a threat.

"Maybe you would like to maybe go to some public events with me, what do you say Harry?" Fudge asked him hopefully, "in fact there is this Charity Ball coming up in a couple of weeks, some big names will be there that I would be happy to introduce you to."

Harry had heard about it and had even been planning on going already as Amelia had to go as part of her job and Susan decided she wanted to go too.

Amelia had however warned him what Fudge would be up to and he definitely didn't support much of what the Minister was doing, but he didn't want to directly insult him either.

"I'll be there," Harry said simply, although already planning on avoiding Fudge like the plague while there.

"Excellent!" Fudge declared, seeming pleased as he had a wide smile as he continued to try and sweet talk him a little, "are you planning on bringing a date? I'm sure there are lots of lovely ladies vying for your attention."

Harry immediately thought of Susan, but he hadn't been planning on bringing her like on an official date or anything.

Fudge however wagged his eyebrows, taking his silence for confirmation as he said, "ah, so there is a special lady in Harry Potter's life then. I can't wait to meet the special young lady and of course I would be happy to introduce her as well to all the big names, why there is-"

"Excuse me Minister, but could we proceed with this, I have a lot of work to do afterwards," Amelia pointed out in irritation.

"Ah, trying to catch Lestrange and Black no doubt," Fudge said looking unconcerned, "they probably drowned or froze to death while trying to escape, I don't see why we have to use such resources for such an extensive manhunt only to unnecessarily frighten people."

"We must take all precautions and not simply make assumptions," Amelia argued, "in fact one of my best people already got a lead that Black might be-"

"Yes, yes, more of your rumors," Fudge declared dismissively.

Seeing that the subject was going off topic, Karen suggested, "well why don't we sit down and get the formalities out of the way before signing the adoption agreement?"

"Very well then," Fudge agreed as he went over to his desk and sat in his overly ornate gold chair like that of a king's throne. Fudge reached over and produced the adoption papers with a flourish as he told Harry, "well then it shall be my great honor to sign this for you Harry if this is what you still want."

He said it like it meant that Harry now owed him a favor if he did sign it and he could tell that Fudge wasn't particularly excited to sign the adoption over to Amelia, but Harry decided he didn't care as long as Fudge signed it.

"Yes, this is what I want," Harry told him, looking at both Amelia and Karen as they were both smiling at him.

Fudge finally did sign it after a bit more bluster and the adoption papers were signed.

"Welcome to the family Harry!" Karen said as she went and gave him a hug.

A burst of excitement and happiness hit him then and it continued even as Amelia went and gave him a hug too.

He was part of a real family now.

Yet just as he was about to truly celebrate inside, an auror rushed into the Minister's office out of breath as he looked at both Amelia and the Minister, "they told me I would find you here, your hunch was correct Madame Bones, I think we've located Black."

….

Hermione

While Harry was gone with Susan's Aunt and Mother the girls had all been dropped off at Diagon Alley to go shopping.

Amelia had insisted that they stay in public places and Hermione had noticed at least 3 different Aurors patrolling the streets so far.

Despite the extra security however, Hermione couldn't help but enjoy being able to be in the company of just them girls as they did a little shopping trip.

Only a couple years ago, she couldn't have dreamed ever getting to do this with a bunch of girl friends, as they went shopping, mostly just looking around as they also talked about clothes or cute boys, or more specifically Harry in their case.

With Harry usually around it was kind of hard to talk about him in this way, but in this rare moment with him not there they couldn't seem to resist talking about him.

It was pretty clear now that they all had major crushes on him and they had just decided to let that fact out in the open, which might have caused problems, but so far it hadn't as they gushed and fawned all about him.

He was indeed growing up to be a rather handsome young man, he didn't look at all scrawny anymore, had grown taller than any of them, and still of course had his gorgeous emerald green eyes and messy black hair that she kept wanting to run her hands through.

After looking around at some other stores for a bit while they talked about Harry, Hermione then asked, "so what else do you want to do or look at girls?"

"Something that we couldn't normally do with Harry around," Daphne suggested, "Harry's great and it's been fun talking about him with you girls but it is nice to be able to do something just us girls for a change."

"It has been rather nice," Hermione was forced to admit, "but it does feel like we are definitely missing someone without him here."

"Still let's do something we couldn't do when he is around," Daphne said mischievously.

"Lingerie shopping maybe?" Susan suggested.

"That certainly is one thing that I'm not about to do in front of Harry," Hermione agreed.

"Why not?" Daphne argued, "it's not like it is any more revealing than say a bikini which is basically just underwear for swimming."

"I guess you do have a point," Hermione was forced to admit even though she still wasn't willing to try it. In truth though she had yet to wear a bikini herself, opting for a more modest one piece so far. Susan and Daphne however had no problem with doing so.

"I thought he was going to self-combust when he saw me come out in my new swimsuit the other day," Susan observed.

"Well when you've got as much to show off as you do it is no wonder the poor boy acted like that," Daphne pointed out, "it makes even me want to stare at you."

"He really does try though," Padma pointed out, "I mean I'm not nearly as curvy as you Susan or even you Hermione or Daphne, but even I've been doing some growing and while Harry does notice, he does it rather respectfully."

"Well about as respectfully as a young teenage boy can be expected to act anyway," Daphne added.

"I actually rather like it when he looks at me though," Susan admitted, "why do you think I got that bikini anyway?"

Daphne grinned and said, "well we all like to show off a bit, in particular to a certain black haired, emerald green eyed boy."

Hermione sighed as she admitted, "I feel like we make it worse when we feel like we need to compete against each other."

In truth she felt rather awkward showing off her body like that, but she also felt the need to do so in order to compete with the other girls.

"Yeah, I've been trying not to, but I have been doing it more lately subconsciously now that you mention it," Susan agreed.

In truth, they were all still quite young and were only just starting to understand their changing bodies, but they also all did want to be considered pretty and show off...to varying degrees. Hermione and Padma were much more conservative while Susan and Daphne less so.

"Well let's go get some stuff just for us then, not like Harry will ever see us in any of it and I'm sure we could all use some new bras before the school year starts and it is harder to get them," Daphne pointed out.

With that they all went shopping both for bras and underwear as well as for regular clothes too.

As Hermione tried on various outfits she did have to admit she was developing into a rather attractive looking girl. She wasn't as busty as Susan or even Daphne, but she did have a nice, big firm bum that Daphne often complimented her on.

Her bushy, unmanageable hair, thanks to some hair potions that Susan and Daphne had given her, had finally started to straighten itself out and was now thick, shiny, lusterous, long, and fell to her waist.

As they each tried on outfits and modeled a little in front of each other, they each also complimented each other on how good they looked in each outfit.

Ordinarily clothes shopping really wasn't her thing, but she did have to admit that she was certainly enjoying herself trying on new clothes even though she probably wouldn't buy most of them.

It did however feel good to know that she looked good and wasn't just simply an ugly, know-it-all bookworm.

For the first time, she thought of herself as pretty, and she didn't feel at all jealous in thinking that each of her very good friends with her were very pretty as well.

…..

After that as they walked down Diagon Alley Hermione spotted the pet store and asked the other girls if they might want to stop inside.

"I've been wanting to maybe get an owl," Hermione confessed.

"Sure," Susan agreed easily as they stepped inside, "any particular kind you were wanting?"

Susan then began rattling off different owl species which rather impressed Hermione. Different types of owls was one thing she hadn't taken the time to study yet herself.

"You sure know a lot about owls," Hermione observed.

Susan had talked about owls several times, but it was cool to see her get so excited about them each time.

"I love owls," Susan admitted, practically gushing with enjoyment on her face, "my favorite animal actually. Take Harry's owl Hedwig for example, absolutely gorgeous isn't she?"

Susan had a major love for Harry's owl along with her own barn owl Cleo and she swore Susan visited the owlery more than any other student that she knew.

"Yeah, Harry's owl is almost as gorgeous as he is," Padma agreed with a small sigh as she looked on with a glazed look in her eyes.

As they entered the pet shop however, immediately they were greeted by loud barking.

"Scabbers!" They heard Ron Weasley yell.

Hermione noticed Ron's pet rat Scabbers running around the pet store floor, desperately trying to escape as a big black but very thin dog raced after it.

"Bowzer!" One of the shop employees yelled, "stop!"

The dog however didn't listen as it continued to chase Scabbers, barking the whole time.

Yet then the shop door opened as another customer tried to come in behind them.

Seeing its chance, Scabbers made a mad dash for the open door as the dog desperately tried to get to it first.

It looked like Scabbers was going to make it, the doorway had just enough room as it closed for him to escape and the door to slam shut on the dog...but then at the last moment a cat pounced from one of the counters above and grabbed up Scabbers itself.

Scabbers seemed to be desperately trying to get away from the cat, but the cat instead of trying to eat it, merely just held it tightly, seeming to be waiting for the dog for some reason.

Much to everyone's amazement, the dog then turned magically into a man.

Nearly everyone there who had seen the wanted posters exclaimed all at the same time with surprise and fear: "It's Sirius Black!"

"I finally got you Wormtail," Sirius said happily as he took the rat from the cat with much thanks, "thank you Crookshanks. You've been most helpful, don't worry I'm going to return and I'm going to adopt you once I'm free."

At that about a half dozen aurors all showed up inside the shop all with their wands pointed at Black, but he didn't seem at all concerned.

Amelia was actually there only a moment later, a triumphant look on her face.

"I'll go quietly," Sirius promised, "just make sure to examine the rat that's all I ask."

"The rat?" One of the aurors asked in confusion.

"Yes, he's Peter Pettigrew," Sirius explained, "if you will just examine him-"

"We aren't doing anything for you or believing your lies scum!" Another auror insisted.

"Please just examine the rat!" Sirius pleaded.

Amelia unlike any of the aurors seemed curious enough as she said, "it couldn't hurt to at least find out if he's somehow telling the truth."

She cast her wand at the rat that was still desperately trying to get away from Sirius' hand.

Much to everyone's amazement, the rat also then changed into a man and as it got larger Sirius dropped it onto the floor.

The man looked around with beady eyes, letting out several terribly scared squeaks, still sounding much like a rat.

Several people including half the aurors seemed to recognize him and with amazement exclaimed, "it's Peter Pettigrew!"

"Arrest this man," Peter Pettigrew declared, finally seeming to remember how to talk as he pointed at Sirius.

"Peter?" Amelia asked, seeming amazed herself.

"He was the one who betrayed James and Lily, killed all those Muggles, faked his own death, and framed me for the crimes," Sirius insisted.

It seemed like a rather tall order for him to have accomplished all that, but the fact that Peter Pettigrew had now been proven to be hiding as a rat all this time did give at least some credit to his story.

Amelia didn't seem entirely convinced of everything but still thought it a good idea to bring both of them into custody to get to the bottom of what really happened.

Hermione was however eventually allowed to go look for and find an owl along with her friends, Susan in particular was more than happy to help her find the right one as she helped her look over each and every owl in the shop.

She finally decided on a beautiful snowy owl like Harry's Hedwig, only this one was male. Who knows, maybe Hedwig and her new owl that she named Archimedes might fall for each other?

Still throughout the rest of what remained of their shopping trip, what they discussed most of all together was the capture of Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew and what would happen to them.