AN: For those asking why did the Aurors not arrive in time, it's because the fight was very short. They barely exchanged a few spells before Voldemort's Banishing Charm killed those two Unspeakables and Saul Croaker cast Fiendyre. Everything happened too fast. Anyway, a new chapter is up, enjoy!

Chapter 33 - Aftermath

'I guess with Neville's scar hurting that badly, it shows that he is a Horcrux, just like I was,' Harry thought as he climbed a long flight of stairs on his way to the Ravenclaw Tower.

The Boy-Who-Lived all of a sudden bursting in agonizing screams had freaked out everyone. Even after Neville lost consciousness and got sent to the Hospital Wing, the party could not resume because the good mood from before was ruined.

'What made Voldemort lose control of his emotions like that?'

As far as he knew, his scar had caused him such terrible pain in his past life only when Voldemort was enraged. But, to his knowledge, it was the first time that Neville had made such a scene in public.

'What's Voldermort up to?' he wondered. 'Since Neville didn't poke his nose into the whole third-corridor stuff last year, Quirrell managed to steal the Stone and escape. So Voldemort has gotten a body about one year ago. Aside from sending those 10 Death Eaters to kill me and Bella, he hasn't done anything.'

The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he was becoming.

'My knowledge from my past life regarding future events is of no use here. And the current timeline has already diverged from Fleur's version of the future too. In her future, Voldemort seemed to have started his activities in '95 as Thomas Gaunt...but Bella's Magic Ancestry research becoming acknowledged forced his hand early on. Furthermore, Fleur killed Fudge, Umbridge and most of his inner circle of Death Eaters and he hasn't recruited any Snatchers or other lackeys yet... what is he up to?'

It was when he was about to knock on the eagle knocker on the entrance door to the Ravenclaw common room that a soft pop came from behind him.

"Niki? What are you doing here?" he asked as he turned around.

It was none other than Bellatrix's House-Elf, Niki. The little creature took out a small note from one of the pockets of her clean dress-like pillowcase and said as she handed it to him:

"Mistress sent Niki to deliver young master a message," came the elf's squeaky voice though Harry noticed that she sounded far less upbeat and happy than usual.

"What happened? Is everything alright? Is Bella alright?"

"Mistress not hurt but she be very sad. Mistress was crying when Niki left."

That made Harry's face change.

'Bella is not the kind of person that cries easily... just what happened?' he thought and quickly unfurled the note to read her message.

Dear Harry,

Voldemort attacked the Ministry a few minutes ago. He came for me, I was his target. Don't worry, I'm fine, I'm safe, at the Blackthorn. I managed to escape at the very last second. But my friends and coworkers weren't as lucky. Saul Croaker and two others were killed. I need some time alone. But I will be back to Hogwarts tomorrow morning.

Love,
Bella.

⁂

As she stood with her head in her palms, bitter tears were falling down her cheeks and onto the hardwood floor of her living room. Harry's assessment of Bellatrix was not wrong, she was not the kind of person that would easily cry. However, she was still human. And she had just lost three coworkers, of whom Saul Croaker had been more like a friend than her boss. The old wizard had basically changed the course of her life when he sent her that internship - she knew from Harry what the other alternative could have been if she had not accepted it - and for the following 20 years, he had been a mentor for her. He was one of the few people that she had genuinely admired and respected. But now, he was dead. Gone.

A soft popping noise alerted her of Niki's return to the living room and she quickly tried to wipe her face with the sleeve of her blouse. So proud and reticent of showing weakness she was that she did not feel comfortable with showing her weak side even to her House Elf. That was also why she asked Harry in the note not to come to the Blackthorn that evening, to not see her in her current state.

"Did you find him? Did you give him my message?"

"Young master's magic be strong, Niki found him right away and delivered the note," Niki said, her long and gnarly fingers curled in worry for her mistress.

"Good, thank you, Niki. You can retire for tonight, I won't require your services until tomorrow," Bellatrix said and dismissed her.

"Is mistress okay?" the House Elf asked hesitatingly. "If Niki can do something for mistress, mistress just has to ask! Niki will do anything!"

The ghost of a smile appeared on Bella's face but she shook her head.

"Don't you worry your little head. You said you've taken a liking to carving things, didn't you? You have the evening off, go ahead and enjoy yourself."

Ever since the House Elf saw Harry spending almost one entire week carving Ancient Runes on the huge Totem in the courtyard of the Blackthorn, she was intrigued. With Bellatrix's approval, Niki tried her hand at carving something. That's how she discovered the joy of having a hobby, something to do outside of being the perfect servant for her mistress.

'Harry...it looks like everything he touches becomes strange or unusual. A feisty wand that throws tantrums, an owl that's more intelligent than it's supposed to be, a huge snake that acts like a clingy dog, and now a House Elf aspiring to become a sculptor.'

For a brief moment, she was amused at that thought. But it did not last. Her mind quickly went back to what happened that evening and she sank into depression again. Nevertheless, she involuntarily started thinking about Harry again after a while.

"I am not worried about my life. I don't question my victory. The question is, what will the price of my victory be? Who am I going to lose in the process? How many of my loved ones will die in this war?"

Those were the words that Harry told her two weeks ago, at the beginning of the Easter holiday, while he was carving the Baobab wooden pole into a totem.

'So this is what he meant. Surviving while the ones close to him die...'

Now, she understood why he was obsessed with regaining the power that he had supposedly had in his past life, why he wanted to become even stronger than he already was. She understood the pain of watching the ones she cared about die.

'At least Saul had a quick and painless death,' was the only thing she could tell herself in consolation.

But then, she abruptly sat up. Her eyes, though still glistening, stopped shedding tears. An expression of determination appeared on her face.

'This bastard. I will make him pay.'

Even if she was not powerful enough to take on someone like Voldermort head-on, by herself, she understood where her strengths lay. She was arguably one of the most important people in Wizarding Great Britain. A senior Unspeakable, a member of the wealthy and illustrious Black family, a recipient of the Order of Merlin, Class I, and she was a nation-wide beloved hero too. She had never given too much importance to the last two things but she was going to make full use of them from now on.

'Harry told me that in his past life the Ministry tried everything in their power to hide the truth about Voldemort's return, to pretend that everything was alright.'

She went to the bathroom and washed her face with warm water, scrubbing away the dust, ash, and dried tears staining her face. Taking a look at her dishevelled appearance and her dirtied and singed clothes, she contemplated taking a shower and changing into a new attire to make herself look more presentable. Bellatrix was the kind of woman to still wear high heels everywhere even after nearly dying because of it when she lost her balance after failing to Disapparate during the assassination attempt on her life. That's how much she cared about her appearance, she was that vain. However, at that moment-

'I don't have time for this.'

She was in no mood to doll herself up. Not after Voldemort killed Saul Croaker and two other of her fellow Unspeakables. Not while thinking that the Ministry would try to sweep everything that happened under the rug.

'No, I have to strike the iron while it's hot.'

With that thought in mind, she left the bathroom and walked towards the entrance door of the Blackthorn. Once she was out of the house, in the courtyard, she took out her wand and Disapparated. She was going to make full use of every bit of political, financial, and social power that she had in order to make sure that Voldemort would not get away with what he had done.

⁂

Dumbledore, Minister Bones, the head of DMLE, Rufus Scrimgeour and many other important officials of the Ministry of Magic were gathered together with a crowd of reporters from various media outlets in the now mostly ruined Atrium of the Ministry. Almost all the fireplaces had been destroyed and the grandiose statues in the middle of the hall had been reduced to ashes. Pretty much everything had been incinerated, be it objects or people.

The moment that one of the few still working fireplaces was all of a sudden lighted by green flames, everyone turned their heads to look at the newcomer. There was no one who did not recognize the person in question: Bellatrix Black was hardly a forgettable witch, especially with the popularity she was experiencing as of late due to her Magic Ancestry research and her triumph over the 10 assassins that had tried to kill her.

Without as much as a greeting or exchanging any sort of pleasantries, Bellatrix half-shouted towards the Minister:

"I was here when he came! Voldemort is back! He came to the Ministry to kill me!"

A chorus of gasps came from the journalists and the Ministry officials alike at her words. Then, as one, the media-related witches and wizards started snapping their cameras wildly at Bellatrix. It was a huge scoop!

"You have to let people know the truth!" Bellatrix said, her voice almost a shout now.

"Miss Black, calm down, please. Tell me-"

"Calm down?!" she yelled incensed. "Saul Croaker, Jimmy Rockfield and Sean Sant-Germain were murdered in front of my eyes! I won't let you sweep this under the rug!"

"I have no intention of doing that," Minister Bones tried to say again but the agitated witch seemed unable to hear her.

"Even if it's the last thing I do, I swear on my name that-"

"Bellatrix!" Dumbledore slightly raised his voice authoritatively and it was as if Bellatrix snapped out of a trance and she stopped shouting. "Amelia here has no intention of hiding the truth from the people. Tell us what you know, walk us through what happened," he said calmly but firmly.

It was in this kind of moments that regular people had the chance to catch a glimpse of what made Albus Dumbledore a force to be reckoned with. It was not just his skill with a wand that earned him his worldwide notoriety; the aura of authority he exuded and the confidence and the calmness that steemed from the knowledge that he was unrivalled were often enough to cow his opponents into submissions before the actual fight even started.

"I was Voldemort's target," Bellatrix began to say. Visibly calmer after understanding that Amelia Bones did not intend on burying her head in the sand like an ostrich, she started to tell them the events that had transpired that evening. "His 10 Death Eaters couldn't get the job done last year and the Imperius Curse that he had cast a few weeks ago on Mr Croaker yielded no results. So he came to do the deed with his own hands. We tried to keep him tied until the Aurors came but he unexpectedly cast the Fiendfyre Curse. There was nothing we could do against the demonic flames. Everything ended in seconds. I was lucky to escape with my life [...]"

While narrating the events, Bellatrix slightly twisted the truth. Inwardly, she knew that the fact that they were defeated so easily was because of Croaker losing his calm upon witnessing the deaths of his two friends and casting the Fiendfyre Curse. Had he remained calm and composed, between the two of them - an accomplished duellist in Bellatrix Black and the Head of the Department of Mysteries - they could have kept Voldemort busy and survived for a few minutes until the Aurors arrived to gang up together on the Dark Lord. However, Mr Croaker had lost his cool and acted recklessly. The result was that he died and that she had barely escaped with her life.

'Nevertheless, there's no point in besmirching his name and his legacy now.'

Nobody except for her and Voldemort knew what had happened in reality and it was not like Voldemort would come out in the open to dispute her claims. Saul Croaker would be remembered as a martyr, a hero, not a man who had acted recklessly after letting his sense of reason be clouded by anger and grief.

⁂

It was not only the student body at Hogwarts that was thrown into chaos once the news of Voldemort's return was made public but the entire Wizarding Britain was experiencing a turbulent time. Panic and fear gripped people's hearts. The Dark Lord's reign of terror from 10 years ago was hardly forgotten seeing as even to this day, the vast majority of people was still too terrified of even speaking his name. It goes without saying what kind of feelings were boiling inside everyone upon learning of the fact that Voldemort had boldly attacked the Ministry of Magic and used the Fiendfyre Curse to destroy and kill everything in his path.

It was not only the public at large and the average people that had been affected by the events from Saturday night. Harry had been affected by what happened too.

"Are you sure about this? I thought you loved Quidditch more than anything," Fleur said while the two of them were having lunch together in the Great Hall. "Davies also looks like 'e is two seconds away from committing murder."

Harry chuckled at her joke. It was Monday and the first thing that he did that morning at breakfast was to go to the Captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team to resign from his role as the Seeker of the team. Several hours passed yet Roger Davies' anger still appeared to have not been mollified in the least.

"I love Quidditch. I love flying. But how can I leisurely fool around and play Quidditch when Bella almost died two days ago? Instead of wasting so many hours away, I could use that time to focus on my project instead."

"Still working on those totems?" Fleur asked in interest. The idea of borrowing the power of a spirit intrigued her.

"I finished the Earthbind Totem. I'm working on the second totem now, on the Voodoo one."

While they were making idle talk and eating, Fleur lightly pulled on his sleeve and said:

"Hey, look at this," she said and showed him an article on the third page of the Daily Prophet.

Infamous werewolf, Fenrir Greyback, escapes from DMLE's custody

Known for his acts of cruelty across entire Europe, Fenrir Greyback had been a target of interest for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement for a very long time. Thanks to Minister Bones increasing the funds allocated to DMLE ever since she took up the post, the Aurors' resources and manpower have allowed them to double their efforts in apprehending criminals.

That is how three days ago, Fenrir Greyback had finally been captured by a squad of 5 Aurors led by Senior Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt. The Ministry had yet to release the news of his capture when You-Know-Who launched his attack on the Ministry. This is what the head of DMLE, Rufus Scrimgeour, had to say about the incident:

"We all know that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's first target had been Senior Unspeakable Bellatrix Black. But the timing of his attack coincides too much with the time of Greyback's arrest. We suspect it had been his ploy all along to kill two birds with one stone, to also release his follower from prison. We regret to inform you that Fenrir Greyback had managed to escape from his holding cell during He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's attack. But we assure you that the DMLE is doing everything in its power to apprehend this dangerous criminal as soon as possible.[...]"

Upon reaching that point, he stopped reading the rest of the article and snorted.

"Can't say I'm surprised. Typical lack of competence from the Ministry, nothing new."

"I think it's a little weird," Fleur said.

"Mm, how so?" he asked while helping himself to a new portion of mashed potatoes and chicken liver.

"Greyback was never captured back in my future," the girl said in a low voice. "Not only that 'e was not captured, but 'e gathered a 'uge pack of werewolves together with Remus Lupin after joining Gaunt's forces. Too many people were killed by them. My ex-husband had been attacked by Greyback himself too."

Finishing saying that, a pondering, lost in space look appeared in her eyes. She seemed to be lost in her memories.

"Ex-husband? Who were you married to back in your future? Let me guess, Bill Weasley?"

Fleur quickly schooled her expression back to normal.

"I don't want to talk about it."

He looked at her exasperated.

"You have any idea how annoying you are now? Why start talking about it at all if you're not going to finish?"

"Sorry, 'Arry. This-, ...even after all these years, it is still a 'urtful thing to think about... I can't. I don't want to talk about it."

They became silent for a while after that.

"It's okay," he said eventually. "Don't wanna force you to do anything."

Turning to look at her, he told her seriously as she looked her in the eye: "But you can't keep everything bottled up inside forever. I know you can occlude your feelings and memories but there is a limit to that. Occlumency is not all-powerful. At some point, you will break down. The longer you put it off, the more dangerous your outburst will be when it finally happens. I speak from experience."

Fleur did not say anything to retort against that.

"You don't need to talk to me about it if you're not comfortable with it. Find someone you can trust and-"

"There's no-one I trust more than you, 'Arry," she said sincerely.

He put his hand on top of hers on the table and squeezed it lightly as to comfort her. "Whenever you feel ready to talk about it, I'm here," he said.

"Thank you," Fleur said and squeezed his hand back too.

They kept their hands linked for a few moments. Eventually, Harry dressed his voice.

"Um, Fleur?"

"Yes?"

"I'm not done eating. I kind of need my hand. Let go of me?"

"Naw. Use your right 'and to eat. You're ambidextrous, are you not?"

After Voldemort had severed his right arm in his past life, Harry learned to use his left one. In this life, now that he was whole again, he could use both his hands just as well, but he was still more comfortable with using his left after spending years not having his right. And now, Fleur was holding his left hand. To make sure he didn't take away his hand, she even intertwined her fingers with his.

"Fleur?"

"Yes~?" she asked coyly.

"People are starting to look at us."

"I don't care?"

"But I do!" he hissed at her under his breath, his cheeks now dusted by a pink colour. "Bella is watching us like a hawk too!"

"Aww! Now that is a rare sight to be'old! Leetle 'Arry is embarrassed~" she cooed at him, grinning from one ear to another.

She turned her head to look at the Professors' table and once she caught Professor Black's eyes, she held the eye contact for two seconds before smirking. Then, she bent down and planted a wet kiss on Harry's cheek.

At that, Harry abruptly stood up.

"I need to use the loo," he said and after yanking his hand free from Fleur's grasp, he made a beeline towards the large doors of the Great Hall, his face beet-red.

Hearing Fleur's twinkling laughter from behind made him flush even harder, the heat in his cheeks extending now to his neck and ears.

"God, I hate this young body!" he groused as he hurried towards the boy's bathroom to splash with some water on his face and cool himself. Mentally, he was an adult but the traitorous, hormonal body of a young teen boy often made him react in a flustered manner to the French girl's teasing.

Still, it was not long after that that he recollected himself. As he returned to the Great Hall to continue his lunch, he thought:

'It's time to introduce Bella and Fleur properly to each other. We should make our future plans together.'

He valued Bellatrix's opinion and experience. Furthermore, after Saul Croaker and the other two Unspeakables' deaths, she appeared to be dead-set on involving herself fully in the upcoming war. Harry did not want to let her face Voldemort blindly, alone. He wanted her by his side.

AN: Bella's near-death experience made Harry quit playing Quidditch in order to focus every bit of his spare time on recrafting his totems.

Regarding Shamanism and Totems, more about it will be explained in the story soon. For now, I will just tell you that just like wizards the likes of Crabe and Goyle's are leagues away from Dumbledore's calibre, it's the same with shamans too. In his past life, Harry had reached the apex in that magical art; most of the Shamans aren't anywhere close to his level so don't make the mistake of thinking that all Shamans are overpowered. Several other important things need to be talked about but I will not discuss them here, I will elaborate more in the story, gradually.

As a side note, I am also planning on shifting the focus a bit to the romantic aspect of the story. As the characters start growing older, expect a slight increase in the 'screentime' dedicated to Harry and Fleur's friendship and budding romance. Hope you liked the chapter. Until next time!