CHAPTER 20: The Dogfather and his Prongslett.
Slowly, Harry Potter came out of his self-induced, brain-induced stupor. He felt like he had been put through a wringer; he was initially lethargic, his thought processes not seeming to work in any semblance of order. His eyes were heavy, not wanting to open. Then he heard his name from a voice he recognised.
"Harry! Can you hear me?"
His eyes popped open and his head turned towards her, away from the hole in the wall.
"Hermione!"
"Well hello, sleepy head. Welcome back to the land of living."
"It's bright in here! Where is all the light coming from?"
Hermione gave a small smile, pointed past Harry, then said,
"Ah, well for that answer best you look the other way towards the window."
Upon doing just that, his own eyes opened wide in amazement at seeing the gaping hole where a wall once stood.
"Merlin, what's happened?" Then turning back to her, he said, "Has there been an attack on the place?"
"Well, you could say that, but not from outside. If you notice, all the rubble has gone out the way. The 'attack' on the wall came from inside."
Then it dawned on Harry what exactly Hermione meant.
"Oh shit! Did I do that?"
"Language Harry! And yes, you did. And scared the living daylights out of me in the process!"
"Oh Merlin! McGonnagle will be well pissed off with me now, with me punching a large hole through her house. As if she wasn't already with me losing my temper with her. Shit! Sorry Hermione! Have I injured anyone, you, the Professor or Doc Meghan?"
"No Harry. Everyone is fine. Harry, do you not remember doing this? You were conscious when it happened although in a rage. You didn't black out until after the wall was smashed."
"No Hermione, I don't remember a thing about this. The last I remember was losing my temper with the Professor. That's it. How long was I unconscious?"
"A bit over three hours Harry, so not that long. Between losing it with the Professor and blowing out the wall was only a few minutes. Five at the most."
"How can I not remember that when I was still conscious? How can I not be aware that I actually had the power to blow out a wall without even casting a spell? That's scary, Hermione! I could have hurt someone unintentionally. What if I did this at Hogwarts or the Burrow or Diagon Alley? With loads more people about. And why is it happening to me?"
At that moment both the younger and older McGonnagles were entering the room and heard Harry's statement. Harry got his answer to his last question form his Head of House.
"That, , is what I am hoping to find out. With your permission, I will use a bit of magic, a bit of diagnosis from my niece, here, all with a bit of help from this old mongrel!"
And a beaming Sirius stuck his head around the door frame, saying,
"Hello, Prongslet. Hello Hermione. Nice to see some of you young ones are upholding the 'getting into trouble' tradition!"
There were looks of surprise on both the young couples faces. Harry spoke first.
"Sirius!"
"Yes, very much so! Always 'Sirius' me! Now just what by Merlin's grey beard have you been up too, Harry, that gets you all banged up and injured? … ". There was a pause as suddenly his eyes widened as he realised the state of the wall. …"Fuck! .. oops! Sorry all. Ten points from Gryffindor, eh Professor? You mentioned that Harry had a couple of magical mishaps Minerva, but when you told me about the bedroom wall I didn't realise you meant the whole wall! Bloody hell, Harry, you do not do things by halves! Well, I see the hole but what is holding the building up?"
McGonnagle Snr answered:
"A transfiguration spell of some complexity, Sirius. I have basically made the air that within the hole solid, but not with a freezing spell. In that way we can see out through the air as if nothing was there, but the elements cannot get in and nor any other unwanted inhabitants see back through from outside or penetrate either. Rather clever, if I say so myself."
"Well, twenty points to Gryffindor, Professor. That makes up for the twenty you took from me!"
He had moved to the bed and ruffled Harry's hair then bent over to give his Godson a hug. "Good to see you, pup, even if you are in a sickbed. Now, what in Merlin's name have you been up too to get all banged up like this. You are in a bit of a mess. Oh, wait a bit." Then turning to Meghan, Sirius said. "Miss McGonnagle, I am presuming that your presence here and being a Healer and Doctor. You will be the one that has fixed him up and set him on the road to recovery?"
Meghan smiled. "Yes, it was me. My aunt had Dobby bring me here right away, earlier yesterday. Harry was badly injured; stabbed , battered, bruised and a bit broken in places. All on the mend now though. He is a remarkably fast healer. But, at least a week more of bedrest when he isn't scaring the living daylights out of us all by powerful magic!"
Sirius looked in shock at what Meghan had said.
"Stabbed? Who the fu …. in Merlin's name did that?" Then turning to his Godson he said "Harry?"
"Better sit down, it takes a bit of telling."
And so, the full story was told. Everything.
_HJP & HJG_
"Great job, Prongslett! Well done. And Minerva, Meghan, oh, and to Dobby too, wherever he is, thanks to you all three of you. This Old Marauder is in your debt."
A certain young witch's reaction was somewhat different. Loudly different.
"GREAT JOB! SIRIUS, ARE YOU SERIOUS! GREAT BLOODY JOB! HARRY WAS ATTACKED AND BADLY INJURED BUT HE HAS KILLED THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE! THERE ARE NO WITNESSES! YOU KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN. THE BLOODY MINISTRY WILL TRY TO PIN THE WHOLE LOT ON HARRY, SAYING IT WAS TWO MURDERS!"
"Whoa! Calm down Hermione. There is a witness, Harry himself. Victim and witness rolled into one. Trust me. Harry can be accused all he likes but proving it is an altogether different matter. The truth of the matter is in Harry's brain. Veritaserum will soon reveal that Harry is telling the truth, the whole incident laid bare for all to here and all that is needed is a pensieve and Harry's memories and the investigators will see it clear as day too. And as if that wasn't enough, there is the evidence of the injuries Harry received. Minerva was here very quickly after Harry arrived here, she saw and can give witness to the state of him, as can Meghan as a professional witness, a Healer who treated Harry's injuries. There is also no independent witness' to say to the contrary, and Harry's attackers can't say sod all against him, can they? Oh yes, and another thing, it will be straightforwardly simple to cast a spell to actually show that his injuries were not magically inflicted. No magical residues at all. Muggle inflicted."
Minerva then added, "I like your thinking, Sirius. Also, there are no spells in Harry's wand that were cast at Privet Drive, I have already checked. He used his wand for the Patronis charm against the Dementors, but that was the last one in there. The other two spells that killed the Dursleys were involuntary, wandlessly cast spells in order to defend himself when he was attacked. He was already seriously injured, in pain, under stress, having been further threatened by his aunt with more of the same to follow. His magical familiar, Hedwig, had been injured in defending him. The magical world places a lot of stock in the connection between a witch or wizard and their familiar. All this, Miss Granger, is excellent reasons for no charges being brought against Mr Potter or an acquittal on the grounds of self-defence. The DMLE has no case to prosecute Harry."
Hermione's answer to all this conjecture was a very straightforward one.
"Oh, is that right! No case to answer! Well, my answer to your answer is simple. There was no case to answer against Sirius either and look what happened to him!
Sirius was the first to come with a reply.
"Hmmm, good point, Hermione."
Then Minerva came back with'
"There are a number of things that are very different between Harry's situation and yours, Sirius. Back then, everyone knew of the state of the Black family history and it's predominantly pure blood thinking and its alignment with the Dark factions of pure-blood priority over anything else; you were set up by Pettigrew to take the blame and you weren't thinking straight to defend yourself; crooked and bought senior Ministry officials made the decisions that ended up with you being thrown into Azkhaban the way you were, and …. You didn't have the current, incorruptable Head of the DMLE batting for our side. Amelia Bones is as straight and thorough as any a DMLE chief has been in many a long year. She'll see it through, particularly when she finds out that she should have been Harry's guardian all these years. You and Amelia, Sirius, if my memories serve me right, were in the modern parlance, 'an item' in 1980/1981. You were Harry's Godfather, still are, Amelia was named as one of four potential guardians for Harry. Protecting Harry would have drawn you two even closer instead of the way things turned out with her a grieving sister landed with bringing up her orphaned niece and you in Azkhaban. When she gets all this information, Ami Bones will go ballistic. The magical world will have no choice but to take notice. I will deal with that. I think you will find that not only will there be no charges on Harry, but that your own case, Sirius, will be looked at properly."
"Amelia? She is head of the DMLE? I didn't know, Minerva. Blimey, Harry and I, we just might get a fair shake of the duster on this one. Amelia is as straight as a dye."
"Yes, Lord Black, she is, and not a better person that I know to give all this extra information too. ….. Dobby!"
"POP!"
"Dobby can help the Gryffindor Proffy Cat woman?"
"Yes, Dobby, you can. I need to see Madame Amelia Bones again, asap, please. Tell her it's urgent and I need a quiet meeting place away from nosey ears and eyes. I have vital information for her."
"Dobby go now." …. 'POP!'.
Within the hour, at a meeting at Bones Manor, Madam Amelia Bones was doing exactly as Minerva McGonnagle had predicted; she went 'ballistic!'
_HJP & HJG_
