Harry stood at the end of the very long, dimly lit chamber.

He had the slightest sense of déjà vu, but couldn't quite picture why.

The towering stone pillars covered in carved serpents were casting large, looming black shadows throughout the place.

Where was Ginny?

Please don't be dead, Ginny, he thought desperately to himself.

Harry put his hand into his robes to pull out his wand… but it wasn't there.

Had he lost it in the commotion that had separated him from Ron and Professor Lockhart?

Maybe he had dropped it.

The rocky floor was damp and dark, which made it hard for him to search for it, but nevertheless he bent down to have a look all the same.

Harry walked slowly and carefully whilst facing the floor for a few steps, desperately trying to find his lost wand among the puddles, when suddenly he saw in the distance a pile of what looked like dead bodies.

The discarded corpses on the chamber floor were not skeletons, quite on the contrary in-fact, so they could not have been laying there for very long.

He walked slowly towards the first two, which were considerably closer than the rest of them… and… and it couldn't be.

It couldn't be his…

It was his parents.

He saw his Dad first, eyes still open, flat on his back with his fists clenched and a determined look awash his face.

His Mum was next.

Her eyes were closed, with a look of great pain and misery written across her cold, dead face.

The grief of seeing their dead bodies brought him to his knees in emotion.

He leaned towards his Mother and to balance himself he inadvertently placed his hand down onto one of the cold, wet puddles, only it wasn't cold and it wasn't wet.

Harry reached for the puddle once more and whilst his hand went through the dirty water onto the chamber floor - it did not dampen in the slightest.

He pushed himself up, back onto his feet and rubbed his head slightly, before taking a few steps away from the bodies of his Mum and Dad and onto the next body a few yards further down.

There laying across the chamber floor was Cedric Diggory.

"It's just a dream," Harry mused to himself, as his brain and memories suddenly caught up with themselves.

He wasn't in the Chamber of Secrets trying to rescue Ginny from Tom Riddle and the Basilisk.

That was years ago.

This was all just in his head.


Baaaaaaasssssssssssss


The sound of the basilisk echoed throughout the chamber.

Harry began pacing ahead towards it, leaving Cedric's lifeless body in peace.


Baaaaaaasssssssssssss


He saw the body of his godfather next.

It hit him especially hard knowing that he was now a godfather himself.

He wasn't in the slightest bit ready for the kind of responsibility that Sirius had once had for him, which he in turn now held for Teddy.

Harry strolled past Sirius Black's lifeless corpse and almost tripped over the next one.

It was Dumbledore.

He studied the peaceful face of his former headmaster.

Everything he had worked for had ultimately come to fruition.

Harry had defeated Voldemort once and for all, just as Dumbledore had planned, but he had not lived to see the victory.

"Do not pity the dead, Harry."

He jumped at the words that echoed in the walls of the chamber, words that Albus Dumbledore had once spoke to him, although on this occasion they had not come from Dumbledore's mouth, nor were they said in his voice.

They had been uttered in a much younger voice.

A voice that Harry had not heard in a very long time, but one that he would recognise anywhere.

It was Tom Riddle.

The charismatic and charming young Tom Riddle from the diary… from the horcrux… the one that he had seen in Dumbledore's and Slughorn's old memories. The one who had possessed Ginny and almost killed her down in the chamber all those years ago.

Harry began to sprint in the direction of where Riddle's voice had come from.

As he ran he saw the spread-eagle corpse of Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody, whose magical eye flittered and fluttered to make eye-contact with Harry as he passed by.

He saw Ted Tonks, Dobby and then finally reached the end of the chamber, where the corpses of Snape, Fred, Remus, Tonks and many others lay discarded among the ruin of Salazar Slytherin's secret chamber.

At the foot of the giant stone carving of the Hogwarts founder that his Mother's Gaunt family had descended from, stood none other than the charming young Tom Riddle.

"YOU!" Harry shouted, before he began to charge towards the adolescent version of Voldemort.

Riddle smiled, laughed a little, then with a click of his fingers, he was gone.

He had disappeared into thin air.

It was as if he had never been there at all.

A large, simultaneously blinding and deafening explosion suddenly ignited just in the spot where Riddle had stood mere moments ago, causing a huge smoke cloud and various bits of debris to hurl itself across the chamber.

Harry wiped his eyes and waited for the smoke to clear, until he eventually saw Josh Morris, covered in blood, with just one arm attached to his body. He was screaming in pain as crimson liquid squirted out of the left socket.

"Pity the living…"

The sound of Riddle's voice had come from behind him, but when Harry looked back he was again nowhere to be found.

Then suddenly out of the blue there were masked Death Eaters apparating into the chamber.

Harry counted six of them.

The six missing Death Eaters.

The masked men all stared at him from a distance.

"And above all else, those who live without love."

The sextet of Death Eaters disappeared via apparation slowly, one by one, from left to right, as Harry watched on in confusion as he heard the footsteps of the approaching Tom Riddle.

"You're dead, Tom," Harry said. "This isn't real. This is just happening in my head."

"Well of course it is happening inside your head, Harry," Riddle smiled. "But why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

The sardonic nature of Riddle's delivery made his quoting of the late Albus Dumbledore even stranger.

I don't understand, Harry thought, although given Riddle's reaction to this thought it seemed he might as well have just spoken out loud as he'd heard him all the same.

"In dreams, we enter a world that's entirely our own," Riddle responded, again quoting the late Albus Dumbledore.

"If this is a world that's entirely my own then why I would be dreaming about you?!" Harry angrily enquired, at which Tom finally burst out into raucous laughter.

"This is your dream, Harry," he whispered in his snake like voice, before gently pacing across the dirty stone-floor in-front of him.

"You could have cooked up all manner of creation in that mind of yours, but alas, look what your troubled mind has conjured up… an interesting setting… and a far more interesting companion… I wonder what secrets and riddles you seek to unlock with me tonight?"

The only thing that troubled Harry was that his mind had conjured up Tom Riddle and the Chamber of Secrets in the first place.

It was making him worry that not all of the horcrux inside of him was destroyed that night in the Forbidden Forest.

Perhaps not all of Voldemort was truly dead after all.

A small black snake, hissing slightly, slipped past Harry's feet.

It looked back at Harry momentarily, then began darting off into the distance in a frenzied panic, as what looked like a badger suddenly appeared chasing after it.

Harry watched as the badger got closer and closer to the snake, when suddenly Tom Riddle pulled out a muggle gun and shot the badger dead in its tracks.

The badger never even heard the shot that took it down.


Baaaaaaasssssssssssss


"Tell me Harry, truthfully, how many died so that you could live?" Riddle asked in an antagonistic tone, as he played with the muggle-weapon in his right hand.

"They all died because of you, Tom," Harry spat. "They died so that you could live."

"Perhaps," he acknowledged in reply. "But nobody died so that The Boy Who Lived could join The Ministry and take orders from relics of a bygone age like Gawain Robards, or play second fiddle to no-names like Rhea Savage."

The words shot through Harry like the bullets that had flown through the flesh of the dead badger just moments ago.

"It was you who found and destroyed all of those horcruxes, not The Ministry. Robards and Savage still see you as some sort of child, but as a mere teenager you have accomplished more than the two of them will ever achieve in their entire lives combined. Perhaps you could justify Robards in his position, but what credentials does Rhea Savage have to be Head Auror over you?"

"She's an experienced Auror," Harry replied quickly. "Savage is very highly thought of at the Ministry. I haven't even completed any training or-

Riddle laughed in a very crude fashion.

"Training?! Harry, outside of Albus Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort this country hasn't seen a witch or wizard as famous or as powerful as you since The Four Founders!"

"Fame isn't everything!" Harry shot back. "Robards and Savage deserve the positions that Kingsley has given them."

Riddle raised his left eyebrow slightly, before frowning a little.

"Remember, Harry, I am a mere construct of your subconscious. If you truly believed that and did not have any doubts about them then we could not be having this conversation. Please, tell me, if that explosion had killed Robards and Savage who do you think Kingsley would have head up the department in their untimely absence?"

"I don't know. I-

"Would Kingsley overlook you for Femi Wakanda and Robert Williamson?"

"No – yes- I don't kno-

"There's a part of you that knows you were born to lead, Harry, but there's another part of you that feels too noble to seek out the power and responsibility required to do so. You would do well to embrace that raw ambition inside of you."

"I don't want to seek out power like you-

Riddle raised his hand and motioned for Harry to stop.

"You don't seek power for power's sake, Harry. You have spent your young life reluctantly accepting it. That's what separates you from Dumbledore, who spent his life reluctantly rejecting it, because he was worried about what he might do with it."

The small black snake that had avoided the badger's grasp slithered into Harry's peripheral vision.


Baaaaaaasssssssssssss


"You must decide what kind of wizard you intend to be, Harry Potter," Riddle continued. "Will you rise up, take control and mould the wizarding world into a better one… or will you cower away in a castle and let the same mistakes of history repeat themselves once more like Dumbledore did?"


Baaaaaaasssssssssssss


Tom Riddle suddenly disappeared as the chamber was plunged into darkness.


Harrryyyyyyyyyyyyy Potterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr


Harry felt someone's breath brush against his face.

He clenched up in fear.


Harrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy


In a swift motion he pulled his hands up towards his face to sharply push away whoever it was that was near to him.

"Harry!"

The giant orange blur standing over him in his bed made him jump.

"Harry are you okay?"

It was Ginny.

"I'm fine," he managed to mumble out in a half-awake voice, as he scrambled for his glasses on the side table.

Ginny's scarlet red hair and bright brown eyes came into view as he put them on and she looked at him with a grimace and slight show of concern, as he took a drink from the half-full lukewarm glass of water next to him.

"Sorry to barge in and wake you up, but we've had some post from Ron and Hermione. You weren't having a nightmare, were you?" she demanded in a worried tone of voice.

"What? Nightmare? No," he half-lied. It hadn't been a complete nightmare after all – and his scar wasn't hurting at all, which was a promising sign.

"Post from Ron and Hermione? What did they say?" Harry asked eagerly.

He missed them both desperately.

It had been a strange transition to go from seeing them both, Hermione especially, for months on end to suddenly not see them at all.

He felt as though he was getting withdrawal symptoms.

"Well the letter they sent was addressed to the both of us and… well, since you were sleeping I assumed that you wouldn't mind if I opened it without you," she said cheekily, without the slightest hint of guilt or remorse at having done so.

"Not at all," Harry replied with a smile.

"Correct answer," Ginny retorted.

"Well… what did they say?" he asked impatiently.

"Hermione said that they've found her parents!" she announced excitedly.

"That's brilliant!" Harry rejoiced, as he sighed in relief for his best-friend.

"I know! I'm so happy for her and it sounds like they've been having a nice little getaway in the mean-time too," Ginny continued with the slightest sound of jealously in her voice.

Harry felt a tinge of guilt.

Almost as soon as the war against Voldemort had ended he had gone straight to work as a trainee-Auror and had barely seen his girlfriend.

He had longed to see her every day for months on end during his year on the run - and now that he had the chance to do just that he was squandering it, but it just didn't feel right to have a rest or a holiday when there were six missing Death Eaters still out there somewhere.

"I'm sorry that-

"You don't have to say sorry to me," Ginny interrupted before he could finish.

"Yes, but I-

"But what, Harry?" she snapped. "I won't lie to you… I was hoping that we would have spent more time together in the last few weeks now that the war is over… and I am quite envious of Ron and Hermione having got to go away and spend some time together on the other side of the world… but-

"But what?"

"But you're Harry Potter… and a conventional life and relationship just isn't part of the package with you – and that's not your fault. I knew exactly what I was signing myself up to… it's just hard sometimes… what happened to Josh Morris the other day… I thought the war was supposed to be over and done with…"

Ginny quickly excused herself and left Harry to get ready.

He had thought that she'd looked awfully close to tears before she had dashed out of the room- and he guessed maybe that was why she had made such a hasty exit. It was because she didn't want him to see her getting upset.

He had suspected for a while that she was most probably harbouring those thoughts, but he felt awful having her all but confirm it.

Harry briefly considered running after her, but he decided it would be best to let her have some space, after all she had always complained that Dean had never given her any.

All that Harry had ever truly wanted was to have a conventional life and relationship, yet now he had the chance to have one he was still making things hard for himself and the people closest to him.

Dudley hooted harshly at him from the inside of his cage perched up by the window.

"You can say that again, Dudders."


Walden Macnair looked absolutely terrible. He was about as broken a man as a man could be. The Death Eater sat, if you could call what his broken back was allowing him to do sitting, in a hastily erected bean bag on the marble floor of the interrogation room.

The bean bag had been the only thing that Macnair had been able to sit in or on without screaming in agony for the best part of a week - and judging by the look on his face he was now about as broken mentally as he was physically.

An eager looking Gawain Robards sat opposite him in a fairly comfortable looking oak and leather chair. The Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement aimlessly fiddled with his quill as he studied the notes in the pieces of parchment on the table in-front of him.

Robards was the only one who was on the interrogation side of the chamber with Macnair. Harry, along with Rhea Savage and Femi Wakanda, the pair of whom had spent the most amount of time interrogating the Death Eater in the last fortnight, were behind the charm-field section on the other side of the room.

The charm-field, which Harry had discovered was a quintessential feature of almost all interrogation chambers, allowed for other Ministry agents to watch an interrogation without the suspect being able to see or hear their presence.

They were actually very reminiscent of the sort of glass-mirrored screens that Harry had once seen on old repeats of 'The Bill', a police-detective program which regularly aired on the muggle television. He had often watched that and another similar detective show called 'A Touch of Frost' on the few occasions that the Dursley's had gone out for the day and left him to his own devices.

A common theme of those sorts of programmes was the "good cop, bad cop" routine, where one detective would aggressively interrogate the suspect, whilst the other would be somewhat kinder. Harry was not quite sure on the exact phycology of this method, but it seemed to work for the fictional police officers.

It was fairly safe to say that Gawain Robards liked to take an altogether different approach to his questioning.

His approach was less "good cop, bad cop" and more just plain old "bad cop, bad cop".

"I always thought you did lack a spine, Walden," Robards said sarcastically. "Life imitating art I suppose," he added with a smile, enjoying his own witty remark considerably more than anybody else watching on had seemed to.

Macnair said nothing. He merely glared at Robards with an intense look of fury and pain on his scarred and slightly wrinkled face.

"I'm sure that Savage and Wakanda have already informed you of the considerable case The Ministry has against you, Walden. The charges that landed you into Azkaban several years ago in the first place were not too pretty, but since then you broke out of prison, continuously colluded with The Dark Lord, played a crucial role in the illegal international transportation of many murderous giants and of course, most notably, are the prime suspect in the murder of Broderick Bode. Do you have anything to say in your defence?"

"No comment," Macnair spat.

Robards grinned nonchalantly.

"As I have said, the charges levelled against you, much like the state of your back, are not pretty. However, any cooperation on your part that may lead to the arrest of one of your comrades will of course be heavily considered when you are sentenced."

Macnair rolled his eyes in disgust.

"You want me to betray my friends like some kind of traitor…and for what? A couple of years shaved off of a life sentence?! I'm not fucking stupid, Gawain. I know that I don't know enough to receive a get out of jail free card like some of the others might. Sure, I could sell out Selwyn to you, but you won't drop all of the charges against me even if you did manage to make an arrest. I'd sooner take my chances on him and the others that got away doing some damage and breaking us all out of here."

Robards sighed heavily.

"You really think that a handful of stragglers are gonna manage to do some damage to us and break you all out?!" he asked in an incredulous manner.

"I don't see why not! You would be incredibly naïve to write them off," Macnair snapped back defiantly. "Judging by how emotional your little bitch has been in the last few days… I expect they already have done some damage!"

Savage swore under her breath next to Harry, as Wakanda, who towered over the both of them in her leather heeled boots groaned.

"I warned you, Savage. I told you that you were emotionally compromised. You should have listened to me when I-

Savage loudly shushed Wakanda as Robards began to speak once more.

"You know, Macnair. I think you're the one who is being incredibly naïve," Robards said. "You talk about bargaining to get a couple of years off of your life sentence… I don't recall saying anything about a life sentence. The act of murdering an unspeakable is a crime that has historically carried only one possible sentence… and it is not life, but death."

Macnair eyed Robards with a slight sense of caution, but Harry observed that he did not truly yet seem to believe what Gawain was suggesting.

"You won't execute any of us," Macnair attested in an arrogant tone. "The Ministry hasn't executed anyone in decades. Barty Crouch liked to make out that he was tough on crime at the end of the last war, but even that silly old shit never sentenced Dolohov, Black or the Lestranges to death… and they committed the worst crimes of all."

Savage stole a glance at Harry when Macnair mentioned Sirius.

It had been just three days prior, on the same day that Hagrid had received a pardon of his own that Kingsley had also posthumously cleared Sirius of all charges against him.

Harry was very glad indeed that Barty Crouch had never sentenced Sirius to death, for if he had then Harry would've never even met his Godfather for the fleeting few years that he did.

Robards glared at Macnair with something between contempt and pity in his eyes.

"Do you know why Dolohov, Black and the Lestrange trio were never sentenced to death for their despicable crimes?" Robards asked in an irritated tone.

"Everyone knows why," Macnair replied confidently. "Barty Crouch believed that a life-time of the Dementors was a much harsher sentence than a killing curse, although I guess he never banked on The Dark Lord returning to power and setting everyone free."

Robards chuckled to himself and violently shook his head at Macnair.

"The only thing he never banked on was his son falling in with The Dark Lord. Allow me to let you in on an age-old Ministry secret, Macnair. Barty Crouch was full of shit. He never believed any of that bollocks about life sentences being the harshest sentence once could suffer, although I'm sure he said it enough times that even he might have believed it in the end."

Robards rose to his feet and wandered over towards a fearful looking Macnair, who could do nothing but look up at the head of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement as he towered over him.

"Dolohov and Black were never meant to have life sentences. They were both in line for the death penalty – and they would've gotten it too, if Barty's own bloody son hadn't have winded up getting caught torturing the Longbottoms with the Lestranges. That left old Barty with quite the predicament. He couldn't execute Dolohov, Black and the Lestranges but spare his son – the cries of bias would've finished his career. But he couldn't execute his son either, as that would've finished his marriage. So we got the compromise option. It all worked out very well for The Dark Lord and his cronies, probably the only reason why you recruited the useless little fucker in the first place!"

Macnair said nothing. He re-positioned himself slightly, trying not to make eye contact with Robards and swearing under his breath in pain as he did so.

Harry trembled slightly at his new-found knowledge that Sirius may been sentenced to death if not for Barty Crouch Jr's turn to the dark side. It was hardly a glowing endorsement of capital punishment.

"The mood of the public is one of finality, Macnair. They want some closure. They want some justice – and unlike Barty Crouch, as you well know, I do not have a child in the docks awaiting sentencing-

"You don't have a child full-stop," Macnair spat.

"Oh, Merlin," Wakanda sighed under her breath, as Savage swore violently.

An enraged Gawain Robards instantly pelted the defenceless Macnair square in the head. The connection of his shoe to the Death Eater's nose saw it break on impact, making a loud crunch and crack in the process.

Blood began to trickle down Macnair's face and onto the cream coloured bean-bag, as he cried out in pain at the abrasive movement this had caused his injured neck and back.

Harry looked on in utter bewilderment at what had just happened, as Wakanda exhaled loudly.

Savage turned to him with a saddened look awash her pale face.

"Gawain's daughter," she whispered. "She… she died when she was only seven years old… dragon pox."

Harry suddenly understood Robards' extreme reaction and wondered if Macnair had known, judging by the look on Savage's face he assumed that he probably had.

Robards began to pace frantically in-front of Macnair, as Wakanda eyed her boss with great caution and concern, perhaps fearing any further retaliation, although he seemed to have calmed down a little.

"You know actually Walden, I'm glad that you want to talk about family," Robards said with an evil looking grin. "Savage and Wakanda took the liberty of informing me last week that you didn't actually want to speak to or see any of your family at all. I must confess, given your reputation years ago at the Ministry as a devoted family man, I considered this development to be, well, strange."

"Go fuck yourself," Macnair replied, to which Robards grinned with glee.

"I'm sure you remember your wife used to be quite close to mine once upon a time, so naturally I felt given the circumstances it would be my duty of care to reach out to Cara and make sure-

"You shut your filthy mouth, Gawain! Don't you dare talk to my fuckin-

Robards motioned to punt Macnair in the head once more, but he had only pretended, which nonetheless still caused Macnair significant pain as he had flinched when reacting to the expectant kick.

Macnair tried to spit at Robards, but due to his hunched posture he succeeded only in spitting on himself.

"Oh, but I did dare to talk to her, Walden!" Robards jibed. "And I'm very glad that I did. Cara was most forthcoming about the issues in your broken marriage… and it all seemed to stem back to one thing…

"Don't you fucking-

"The Squib daughter of a Death Eater," Gawain mocked triumphantly, as Macnair looked shattered at Robards having discovered this revelation.

Harry noticed that there was a different kind of pain on the Death Eater's face at this divulgence though. It was not one of discomfort or anger, but rather, for the first time Harry saw vulnerability in Walden Macnair's eyes.

"The way Cara tells it, most of the blame falls at your feet, Walden. She thinks that little Niamh was so embarrassed when her Father got sent to Azkaban for being a Death Eater that she started repressing her magical abilities, so much so that she never actually has shown any magical abilities."

Macnair, defeated, said nothing at this point. Harry watched the blood trickle down the pathetic looking man's nose. He was no longer even bothering to wipe it on the dirty sleeve of his jumper like he had been previously.

"What was your plan if You Know Who wasn't defeated, Walden? Wouldn't it look a bit suspicious when your daughter didn't get a Hogwarts letter this year?" he asked, more rhetorically than literally.

Harry felt his boss was perhaps pushing too far now, but either Robards didn't sense Macnair's agony or did and was merely trying to use it to his advantage.

Gawain now retrieved a piece of parchment from his desk and unravelled it.

"Do you know what this is, Walden?" Robards grilled, as he flashed the piece of parchment in-front of the captive.

Macnair remained silent.

"I'll tell you what this is… written by Dolores Umbridge no less… this… this is what The Ministry's official policy on Squibs was under your exalted leader's control… and I quote…" he began, taking an exaggerated deep breath, which seemed more for show than any sort of respiratory benefit.

"The Ministry of Magic defines a Squib as a person whom is born with the assumption of possessing magical blood, yet possesses either extremely limited magical abilities, or indeed, is entirely devoid of any magical ability whatsoever. The primary cause of the birthing of Squibs is believed to be caused by the Mother fornicating, whether wilfully or against her will, with either muggles or mud-bloods - it is also a possibility that the Father may have falsified their own family history, thereby concealing their un-pure blood from the pure-blood witch who birthed the defected child. Either of these crimes, whereby a deformity such as a Squib is created, are punishable to the guilty party only by the Dementor's Kiss."

Macnair did not look up at Robards, instead much preferring to look at the floor, perhaps in the desperate hope that it would open up and swallow him whole.

"Alternatively, in cases where Squibs have previously shown some kind of magical ability at a younger age, but have since lost the ability, it is believed that their magic was stolen from them. There are many mud-bloods that defy the conventions of logic and biology by possessing magical abilities without magical blood – and this fairly modern phenomenon is believed to be caused by the mud-blood stealing magic from magic-users, i.e – Squibs. It is thought that the most common method of magical theft is achieved through fornicating, but research has also shown that a muggle may achieve the theft of magic by stealing the blood of a witch or wizard. The crime of allowing a muggle to steal one's magical blood, even if the muggle somehow achieved this by force, is a crime that is once again punishable only by the Dementor's Kiss."

Robards finished reading and discarded the parchment onto the floor in-front of Macnair.

"You're clinging onto an ideology that would've seen your only child suffer a fate worse than death, Walden!" he shouted incredulously.

Macnair looked considerably defeated at this point, but did not seem to be rising to Robards' bait.

"You refuse to sell-out Selwyn and Jugson and Co, but would they have stood in your corner when The Dark Lord came to take Niamh away and give her to the Dementors?" Robards asked in a disgusted sounding tone.

Macnair tried his best to hide it, but he had become increasingly uncomfortable and significantly more distressed since Robards began talking about his estranged daughter. He had flinched momentarily at the mere mention of her name again. Harry was not sure if Robards, Savage or Wakanda had spotted it, but he certainly had.


Robards continued probing and taunting Macnair for a further fifteen minutes, but no matter what was said to him he failed to take the bait and showed absolutely no intention of co-operating.

The only time his eyes ever truly showed signs of fight or life where when Robards mentioned his daughter, but Harry supposed that there was nothing they had to tempt Macnair to sell-out Selwyn or any of the others.

Robards was offering Macnair the chance to avoid being sentenced to death and merely see out a life sentence instead, but the Death Eater had previously assumed he was seeing out a life sentence anyway, so this must have barely seemed like an upgrade to him – perhaps the prospect of a quick exit even somewhat appealed to him in his broken state.

What they really needed to get Macnair to talk was something to truly tempt him.


"He's a lost cause," Wakanda commented to Savage and Harry after Robards had been at him for another quarter of an hour after that. "If he was going to talk then he would have by now. I thought the reminder of his daughter might push him to it, but it looks like the prospect of dying and never seeing her grow up isn't even enough for the sicko."

"He does care about her," Savage quipped back in a knowing fashion. It seemed Harry had not been alone in noticing Macnair's body language when his daughter was mentioned.

"But she'll grow up to be a Squib," the Head Auror continued. "She'll be an outcast and he knows both his daughter and his wife will always blame him for it… maybe he'd rather die than live with himself knowing he caused that."

"Perhaps," Wakanda conceded in an irritated tone, as the three of them watched on as a slightly exasperated looking Robards continued to interrogate him. "But all the same… if he won't talk, he won't talk."

"What if we gave him a reason to talk," Harry said, as an incredibly bold idea suddenly popped into his head.

"I'm all ears, Potter," Savage replied. "What would you suggest?" she asked, as Wakanda eyed Harry with a slight look of bewilderment.

"Well the thing that is upsetting him the most is that his daughter will grow up to be an outcast and hate him, right?"

"Right," Wakanda and Savage replied almost in unison, surprising themselves in doing so.

"What if she didn't have to be an outcast?"

"But she's a Squib… how could she not be an outcast?" Wakanda replied, not cottoning on to what Harry had been suggesting at all.

Savage eyed him very carefully, perhaps pondering what she thought he may be implying.

"But don't you see?" Harry began. "That legislation that Robards read out earlier about Squibs. They weren't treated that badly before Voldemort was in power…"

Harry paused briefly as Savage and especially Wakanda reacted wildly to Harry so openly and boldly using Voldemort's name. He forgot that people reacted that way to it and he thought it seemed especially silly since he was now long dead.

"… but even in civilised wizarding society they seem to be largely outcasts," Harry continued. "I think the one thing that would make Macnair talk and lead us to Selwyn and the others is if he knew by talking he could stop his daughter from becoming an outcast."

"But again, Potter, what exactly are you proposing we do? Send an owl to Minerva McGonagall and ask her to send an acceptance letter to Macnair's Squib daughter if he talks?!" Wakanda asked in a condescending manner.

Harry did not reply instantly, but Savage again eyed him up cautiously.

"I think that's exactly what he's proposing," Rhea said carefully, as she appeared to begin to contemplate the idea.

Wakanda looked mortified.

"But - but you can't be serious," the mature witch began. "The implications – the mere idea of a Squib attend-

"Robards said that her Mother believes she repressed her magical abilities," Harry interrupted. "If she was put in an environment with other children and felt confident and accepted for who she was then she might even develop some magical abilities."

"And if she didn't?!" Wakanda interrogated.

Harry's mind darted into action as he tried to think on his feet and justify his reasoning to the older witch.

"Well, you don't use magic in every subject at Hogwarts," he mustered. "Potions… Herbology, erm…

"Divination," Savage added. "Astronomy and History of Magic too, I guess even Care of Magical Creatures and…

"Arithmancy and Ancient Runes… oh and Muggle Studies too," Harry quickly interspersed.

"You can't seriously be entertaining this idea, Rhea," Wakanda mocked.

"Do you have any better ideas?!" she snapped back. "This is all hypothetical regardless. There's no guarantee that Macnair would talk even if we offered this to him, but yes, I think it's certainly an avenue worth exploring."

Wakanda tutted and then sighed dismissively.

"Good luck selling this idea to Gawain," she snickered.

"Gawain won't be a problem," Savage replied confidently. "It's Minerva McGonagall that I'm worried about."

Savage smiled and then suddenly slapped Harry on the back affectionately.

"It's a good thing we've got Potter here for that one," she grinned, as she stared thoughtfully at Macnair through the charm-field.