… - …
Chapter Two
Fate's Decision
"Thomas Riddle, your actions taken over a lifetime have no correlation what-so-ever with your eloquently spoken words. Unlike your actions with Hepzibah Smith, you cannot wink once, smile and charm your way to get what you want today. You've never once done anything simply for the betterment of society. Harry, are you ready?"
He was tired but nodded.
The wands flew back into their respective hands (hand in Riddle's case) and their last spells reconnected. Harry's side was an inch from Riddle's wand. Still hoping that he'd outlast Potter, Riddle drew all of the remaining magic from his followers. He was still unaware that Harry received as much benefit from those actions as he did. For some reason, everyone but Pettigrew perished. In a final act of desperation, he drew the magic and life force from his remaining Horcruxes. As the wand's connection point reached Riddle's wand, the ghostly images of his parents appeared for a moment. They smiled at him as they both told him that they loved him and were proud of him. Harry's scar popped open seconds before Riddle collapsed and died.
Finally, the golden sphere began to fade. Fate said, "Live your life, Harry Potter. Do good deeds that need doing when you can. Encourage others to do the same. Marry your friend."
"What about these people?"
"Transfigure them into wood chips. Take the coins out of their bags first. Take the cup and the cage containing the rat form of Peter Pettigrew back with you. Give it to Amelia Bones. As they measure time, you'll have only been gone for a few minutes." Harry nodded and checked, then transfigured the bodies.
As Harry was working, Fate said, "I've made my decision, Harry Potter. Based on what I've observed over time, I agree with your assessment that the magical society itself is the problem. There is but one world on this planet. Like everyone, those who have been gifted magic are given free choice. What has changed is there will be rewards and consequences. I do agree that children who will be gifted magic should learn with other children first and acquire perspective. The best age may be twenty as you proposed; it may be a few years younger. I have endless years to refine that." When Harry was done, Fate tossed the wood chips onto the fire. He said, "Tell Hermione what you will. No one else needs to know. I've created a little diversion for you. It was fun meeting you, Harry Potter." He disappeared.
… - ...
Harry returned to the Maze and a few seconds later, Cedric appeared. Seeing as Harry already held the cup, he said, "Congratulations."
Harry asked, "How do we get out of here?" As he said the words, the maze disappeared.
Harry looked at the castle. There was smoke coming out of the seventh floor windows. Hundreds of people were standing around the charred remains of the former Hogwarts Headmaster. Cedric asked, "What's with the cage?"
Harry replied, "Just something I found a few minutes ago." Cedric assumed that Harry was referring to something that he'd found in the maze. They walked out together. Along the way, they saw the Sphinx. She nodded at him.
As they were walking, Cedric said, "I'll tell the judges that you won. Maybe you should take a shower in the Quidditch Locker Room before meeting anyone."
Harry replied, "Good idea. One of my tasks was pretty stinky."
… - …
Outside the maze, it was chaos. Minutes before, Snape and Karkarov had fallen to the ground, began shaking violently and died. An old wand in Dumbledore's robes had burst into flames. A moment later, Old Whiskerface was running around looking like a human torch.
There was a small fire in the Room of Requirement when the Horcrux was destroyed. Fortunately, the elves were able to quickly get it under control.
… - ...
After taking a serious shower, Harry quietly made his way to the Gryffindor dormitory, where he put his gold brick and the considerable quantity of galleons that he'd found into his trunk and locked it. Fate had pointed out that the dead would have no use for the coins, whereas he would find many uses for them. He locked his trunk and went back outside. Hermione found him and hugged him. He liked it and hugged her back. She said, "Cedric told everyone that you'd reached the cup first. What happened?"
Harry told her about the sphinx and the spider. Just then, they found Fudge. Harry handed him the cup, saying, "Here's the cup, Minister."
"Very good, Potter. Here are your coins. I'm sorry but it's far too chaotic to have a proper awards ceremony."
"No problem, Minister. Thank you." A minute later, they saw a gray haired woman wearing a monocle. Harry recalled Fate's words, went up to her and asked, "Are you Amelia Bones?"
She replied, "I am. Congratulations, Mr. Potter. How may I help you?"
Harry replied, "I found this running around earlier. I don't think it's a real rat."
Naturally, she assumed that he'd found it inside the maze. She took it out, stunned it, cast a spell and Peter Pettigrew appeared. She announced, "You're right, he's an animagus."
Hermione asked, "Like Professor McGonagall?" She silently wondered how Harry had found and captured Wormtail.
"Exactly. Give me the cage. I'll change him back and sort it out tomorrow."
A few minutes later, Lupin found Harry as they were walking in and said, "Tomorrow morning at eight at the shack. We'll talk."
After he left, Hermione dragged Harry off to the Anteroom off of the Great Hall where the tournament had begun eight months earlier. The wit sharpening potion had long worn off but Fate had decided that it was a good idea for the resourceful lad and made the change permanent. Harry gave his new girlfriend the 800 word version of the evening's events outside the maze. It wasn't that she didn't believe him, she did. It was simply hard to comprehend. She gave him an exasperated look, clearly wanting the 80,000 word version.
He replied, "Come up to my dorm. There's 40,000 galleons and a gold brick in my school trunk."
She smiled and replied, "I'll go up to your dorm with you. You can choose to show me what's in your trunk or not." They spent a delightful hour or three being responsible teenagers. Hermione got back to her own bed well before the sun rose.
… - …
The group of adults helping round up the last of the magical creatures found what appeared to be Barty Crouch Jr, aged since his supposed death in Azkaban a decade and more ago.
What in the world?
One of the Aurors came up just then. "Where's Moody? We found his eye and wooden leg over here, but there's no sign of him!"
"Logic! Don't they teach you anything in Auror school?" Angelina demanded. The muggleborn girl clearly thought that people born into magical families gave up common sense to join. If you have a dead Death Eater, and some of Moody here, doesn't that imply that he was in polyjuice? The smell is rather distinctive. I suggest searching the DADA offices for the real Moody."
One of the aurors walked with Angelina on the way up to said offices. He suggested, "I hear that you're a decent flyer. Have you ever thought about a career in helping others? The Magical Creatures squad can use decent flyers and people who can think."
Angelina nodded. "I do want to try out to be a chaser but that really doesn't help people. Thank you. I'll think about it. Thank you for the suggestion."
Moody was found locked in his own truck.
Angelina made a suggestion of her own. "Mr. Moody, if you ever get a new trunk, I'd make sure that it it had a secret way to allow you to escape. Just you though. Not your suspects."
"I'm retired. What was Dumbledore thinking? He had to know! Come to Hogwarts. Share your experience. You're complaining about the quality of the recruits. Ha!"
Angelina laughed even as the Auror and she levitated Moody out of the trunk and gave him back his leg and eye.
"We should get you to the hospital wing, sir." The Auror stated.
"Yeah. Be sure and reserve a bed for Dumbledore. He's going to need it. Once I get done 'thanking' him for his invitation to teach here!" The Auror didn't mention that Dumbledore's medium-well cooked body was currently in the Ministry Morgue.
… - …
Sunday June 25
Harry and Hermione got up early and sat at the end of the table in the Great Hall before breakfast was served. Harry gave her the 8,000 word version of what had happened after he'd grabbed the cup. They sat in silence for a few minutes after he'd finished. They were some of the longest minutes of his life as he waited for her reaction. Finally she said, "I'm glad that they all got finished off; I'm truly sorry that you had to be the one to do it. I can't imagine what it must have taken to have kept on like that."
He asked, "So will you help me?"
She smiled at her boyfriend and replied, "I've been doing that for years now; I've no intention on stopping. So is Fate's expectation a full-time career doing good deeds, or something like a weekend hobby, or an as needed calling?"
"He told me, "Live your life, do good deeds when you can and marry Hermione."
"Oh... oh my." One of the deities actually knew her name and wanted Harry to marry her. A serious smile crept onto her face. She added, "That sounds like excellent advice. He didn't give you a timeline or anything, did he?"
Oblivious to her real question, he replied, "No but I think we should think up good deeds this summer and do them as often as we can. He added, "What did you have in mind?"
"Cleaning graffiti off of buildings and train cars would be a good start. We could learn a few industrial level charms and fix underpasses that are in need of repair."
Harry agreed, "That would be an excellent start. We'll ask some other people on the train."
… - …
Harry and Hermione went up to Madam Pince when the library opened at seven. She gave a smile when she saw her favorite student and asked, "What can I help you find today, my dear?"
Hermione replied, "We're looking for books referencing cleaning and repair spells, both for home and industrial use."
Pince said, "I have two that you'll like. Let me help you find them. This one is excellent for commercial or industrial use, though the charms are a bit taxing to cast continuously." She pulled another book, found the page by memory, then mentioned, "This one would be excellent for large scale waste removal. Again, they can be quite taxing. Notice the variations referenced on the wand movements." Harry thought, You have no idea what taxing can be.
Hermione asked, "How about something like an impervious charm for work on an outside wall or surface?"
Pince was obviously having fun. She found the relevant page. "This one would be a good choice. Notice the sweeping motion of the wand." Again Harry was taking excellent notes."
Hermione and Harry both thanked her and wished her a pleasant summer holiday.
She replied, "You too. I'll see you both in the Autumn." Hermione looked at Harry's notes and only made one addition. His notes had much more detail than they did eight months earlier when he needed to learn the summoning charm
… - ...
Harry and Hermione met Remus and Sirius in the shrieking shack; entering through the tunnel under the Whomping Willow at eight. Harry gave them the 4,000 word explanation, leaving out the initial torture spells and watching the different Death Eaters die.
Remus asked, "What can we do to help?"
Harry replied, "Two things. First, Sirius, you're going to need to turn yourself in when Amelia Bones asks you to. If you have a Solicitor, you should contact them immediately if you haven't already. Second, if you both can think of a way to defeat, or permanently disable the ministry magic sensing device in the next few days, that would be brilliant."
Sirius looked at Remus, who nodded and replied, "I'll get right on it. A smile crept onto his face. Harry liked the look.
Harry added, "I fully expect that Director Bones will OWL you this morning. We'll let you both go. Get a cellular telephone or two. Where are you staying?"
"We had been staying at number twelve Grimmauld Place but there was a fire. We're moving back to St. Ebb."
Hermione wrote down her telephone number and said, "This is my house telephone number. It will work until we get some cellular phones of our own."
Sirius suggested, "You both should go to Gringotts and see about getting some programmable reusable portkey watches from Barchoke, your Account Manager. Get the gold ones if you can."
"Harry replied, "We will. Good luck with Madam Bones. We'll talk with you both in a week."
Sirius nodded and replied, "Keep an eye on the Daily Prophet.
They hugged and parted ways.
… - ...
Sunday at noon was an unusual time for an emergency meeting of the Wizengamot. Again, Barty Crouch Sr. was nowhere to be seen. Amelia had several questions for the man, including how his dead son had appeared, dead, outside of the maze the previous night, having aged a decade and more.
It appeared that Sirius Black wasn't the first one to have escaped Azkaban.
Black had reluctantly turned himself in two hours earlier. Harry's reasoning was quite sound. He could live his life on the run as he had done, constantly worried that someone would get in a lucky shot. Or... he could stand a trial and hope that true justice was done.
What the budding marauder hadn't told him until Sirius agreed was that Harry had caught Pettigrew, and he was in custody as well. The animagus had barked a laugh at that and then more readily agreed.
Sirius hoped that the rat-fink rat would get his old cell. He'd been set up!
Amelia was happy to see Sirius and hear his tale. She questioned him with Auror Tonks and Shacklebolt in tow; two aurors she trusted.
Dora Tonks was so very pleased that the laughing man from her childhood was no murderer, but in fact a hero. There was no way that this man could fight both Veritiserum and the truth spells, so they all knew that Sirius Black was, indeed, innocent.
Amelia sent a runner down to the Animagus Registration office to record Sirius' animagus form. She didn't want Fudge or anyone else trying to claim a victory from this by getting Black sent back to Azkaban on a technicality.
Pettigrew's tale was in some ways so much worse than what she was expecting. Poor Percy Weasley! When this came out that he harbored a fugitive of justice and the Potter's betrayers, he would likely lose his position in the Ministry of Magic.
People wouldn't remember that he was only five at the time, or that the Weasleys weren't a wealthy family and would welcome such a well-behaved rat as a pet. Rats were somewhat common wizarding familiars, after all. No, they would point fingers and say, He should have known; rats don't live that long. The horrible thing was that a Death Eater had had easy access to kill the entire family if he had decided to. Bringing him into the wards like that.
The Wizengamot session was more of a technicality than anything. Amelia started the session saying that the Potter betrayer had been captured, and had been questioned using Veritiserum. She got permission to have the interview accepted as evidence before anyone from Fudge's side could object.
Of course, having Lucius Malfoy and fifteen other prominent members unable to attend due to their previous business certainly changed the make-up of the group!
The ones left did care about the Potters. A fine pureblood boy like James killed so young, him and his young wife.
Bringing out Peter Pettigrew had Fudge trying to bluster and have him taken out. "That can't be Pettigrew! He's dead! Everyone knows that! I was there that day, and there was nothing left but a finger," Fudge objected.
Amelia ignored him, and asked questions that everyone wanted to know about. What had really happened that terrible day?
Pettigrew was now given a potion that the goblins made. It not only got the truth, but made the person dosed, feel like they needed to brag about all of their accomplishments.
"Oh, the Dark Lord was winning! Everyone else could see that in the Order. It was only a matter of time before the Ministry fell, and he would kill everyone who opposed him. But I knew how to hide and survive. I knew what I had to do to take care of myself. Severus Snape had betrayed our Master, and gone to Dumbledore over a prophecy. The Dark Lord scoffed at first, but then he wanted a sacrifice for an ancient ritual. Why not power that sacrifice with a triple murder, a powerful number and the sacrifice of an innocent? It would have been glorious!
"I took him to the Cottage! Me! The great James Potter. Always bragging, bagging the best witch; not just of our year, but of Hogwarts! Lily was beautiful. I tried to ask for her, and told the Dark Lord how Severus had betrayed him. And he agreed! He would sacrifice Snape instead, and spare Lily. He told her to stand aside. I could hear him from the living room.
"I had stayed down there... Just to enjoy watching James finish dying. He was a brilliant fighter, I do have to say that. The furniture all became wild animals and attacked the Dark Lord with just a word of release. Brilliant! My friend James was brilliant."
Pettigrew shed a tear there. "But it was necessary! It was me or James, so I had to do it, don't you see?"
Pettigrew blew his nose loudly in a conjured tissue that had been handed over.
"Poor Lily. I heard the Dark Lord shouting at her. I wanted to go and make sure he kept his promise, but I was too afraid. And then the house blew up! I ran upstairs. Little Harry was crying, shrieking for his mum, and poor Lily lay there dead.
"I heard a noise and it was Severus! I scurried into a corner as he cradled and held her, crying. I didn't mind hurting him! He was a betrayer! But then others were coming. I grabbed our Master's wand in my teeth and got out of there."
Amelia Bones presented the famous He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's wand.
Peter gestured as wildly as his shackles allowed. "Black somehow followed me. We apparated everywhere. Finally, I found a perfect place to make my stand! Me! Standing up to the Sirius Black! I falsely accused him of betraying James and Lily, and blew up a gas line. It was glorious! Muggles blasted everywhere! Since there was so much blood all around, I cut off my finger, turned into a rat and escaped. And just like that, I set up Sirius to take the fall. Everyone thought that I was dead. My very own plan worked and I escaped."
She asked about his life since that terrible day, and he admitted to hiding at the Weasleys for several reasons. Molly was a fabulous cook, and he would be well fed there. She had several children, so Pettigrew could return to Hogwarts in the guise of a pet. And lastly, the Weasleys had been in the Order of the Phoenix, so he could keep his ears open if he ever heard anything about the Dark Lord's return.
"Would you help him come back if you could?" Amelia asked.
"Oh yes! I would rather live as his slave than be dead. And he will come back. He will. He will. He will." Fate had modified his memory to remove all knowledge of the graveyard, or baby Riddle.
Amelia looked at the man in disgust. A part of her wondered if and when the man had gone mad. But using insanity as a defense was not a wizarding defense.
It didn't take long to convict Pettigrew, and then the surprise of Sirius Black being brought in for a trial had Fudge sputtering. Yet after hearing what Pettigrew had said, there were no charges left to level at Black. Pettigrew had blown up the muggles, Pettigrew had betrayed the Potters.
Sirius Black, then Heir of an Ancient and Noble House, being sent to Azkaban without a trial had several people shaking their heads.
Tiberius Ogden stood and suggested that the law be changed so that such travesty should never happen again. He was seconded and the vote was quickly made.
Percy Weasley, as clerk of the court, offered to write the law, but as was predictable, him trying to make up for Pettigrew happened at a horrible time. If he had waited, and let everything blow over first, it might have worked.
"Weasley! You disgust me! Pack up your desk, and don't come back!" Fudge demanded. He was taking out all of his anger and frustration on the person that many saw in a horrible light right now.
Arguing would just bring more people to Fudge's side, so with heavy heart and lowered head, Percy Weasley left the Wizengamot in shame.
Peter Pettigrew, in shackles that suppressed his animagus ability also left the Wizengamot in shame. Amelia promised Sirius that he would get his old cell for certain. By then, Riddle had stolen so much of his magic that Pettigrew couldn't apparate away or turn into his rat form even of he had his wand in his hand.
It was Sirius Black, with Auror Tonks as escort, who left the Wizengamot with his head held high. If they couldn't find his wand in evidence lock-up, he'd be getting a new one today.
Several reporters crowded around. One of them asked him. "What are you going to do now that you are free?"
"I'm going to check on the Black holdings, and petition for custody of my godson, Harry Potter. Then I'm going to spend time helping people. I think we all are going to be busy doing that now," Mr Black stated before leaving, head held high; with high hopes for the future.
… - …
While Sirius was having his day at the Wizengamot, Harry and Hermione practiced the new spells that Madam Pince had found for them to take Harry's mind off of the trial. Harry looked at the results and remarked, "These cleaning and repair charms should be very useful. We'll have to work on our disillusion charms so we can work during the day.' He had a thought and asked, "What about all of those CCTV cameras that are getting installed?"
Hermione replied, "There are two different incantations, Disillusio or Vitripellem. The first one is more of a blend into the background charm. It's very easy. The subject blends in like a chameleon. I'm not certain that it would fool the cameras. The second one replicates wearing an invisibility cloak in that the subject is transparent. I'm sure that one would work but it's supposed to be harder to cast."
Harry remarked, "I saw Professor Dumbledore use that one once in our first year. He was invisible until he canceled the spell. Let's try that one. If we're going to fix bridges, or clean graffiti off of buildings, we'll want to be able to work during the day."
"OK. Vitripellem." She cast it on Harry. He wasn't invisible, yet. "Finite Incantatum."
He said, "Try again. Visualize the results that you want."
"Vitripellem." He was gone. "Oh my gosh. Finite Incantatum." He reappeared. She added, "You try it."
"Vitripellem. You're naked. Just joking. Finite Incantatum." She stuck her tongue out playfully.
They practiced the new charms until dinner time. They both felt quite confident with them by the time that they'd finished.
… - …
After dinner, Hermione asked, "How are we going to get together to do all these tasks this summer? Do you know where you're going to live?"
Harry replied, "To your first question, Fate taught me to apparate anywhere. Sirius mentioned that there were reusable programmable portkey watches available from Gringotts."
She observed, "They sound useful and expensive."
"I've got a bit of money to work with." Fate was right; there would be expenses involved. Harry decided to convert half of the galleons that he'd found into pound notes when they went to Gringotts.
"Right. I was thinking of asking my dad to help us. We're going to need people's parents to help with logistics. If we want to transform this from Harry's Quest into a common magical practice, we'll need to get a lot of people involved. There are underpasses everywhere that need work and buildings all over that need to be tidied up. We could get people to portkey or floo to a central location, pick them up and have Dad drive us around until we find something that needs fixing. Take fixing underpasses. We could do a half dozen to learn how to do it properly. Then we could bring Susan and Hannah along and show them. Hannah's parents have cars, so do the Creeveys. Anyone can do clean up or simple repair. They just need a different grip on their wand and hold it by the shaft rather than like an orchestra conductor with a baton so they wouldn't be so obvious."
Harry quipped, "Most would even have the sense to wear a long sleeve shirt."
She thought for a moment and added, "We just need to write up a short list of charms. Summoning and banishing along with repair and cleaning is enough to get someone on a cleaning detail. We can get Dad to stop for pizza for lunch or dinner when we're done. Most people our age aren't going to have the magical stamina to do a lot of continuous casting as it is. It's an opportunity for non-magical parents to get involved with their kid's magic. Dad's never seen me cast a single spell before."
Harry replied, "I expect Padfoot and Moony will have as much fun with their task as anyone. Giving us the chance to practice our magic could be a game changer. Four charms isn't too big of a list. Everyone knows repairs. The cleaning charm is second year. Summoning and vanishing are easy enough."
"Invisibility is post-NEWT but Notice-me-not isn't hard. The biggest challenge is going to get people to try doing something along with getting people to do their spells silently or at least in a whisper."
Harry replied, "Good point. I'm not sure if Ernie knows how to whisper. I've heard every word that he's ever said at their house table."
It was a plan.
… - ...
Monday June 26
While the fifth years were taking their OWLs and Hermione was in the library, looking up more charms, Harry went to see Professor Flitwick. After the brilliant professor invited Harry into his office, he asked, "How can I help you?"
"Professor, how does the school or the ministry find out about a person who is new to magic?"
"Normally, their birth is registered in the Book of Life. The book is slightly misnamed as it is possible to come into one's magic later in life. There's also a Book of Death. Theoretically one could lose their magic somehow, I suppose."
"Professor, why doesn't Hogwarts offer night school for adults?"
"Traditionally, it did. Professor Dippet cut the program during World War 2 and it was never reinstated."
"What if someone is gifted with, I mean comes into their magic when they were 20?"
Flitwick replied, "I see your point. Assuming someone found them, their only current option in Britain would be to hire a tutor."
Harry asked, "Professor, do you think it would be possible for the school to transition back to being a center of learning for students of all ages?"
Flitwick replied, "With a limited set of offerings, yes. I believe it would be possible, if there was a reasonable demand for the classes."
"How is education structured for the Goblin Nation?"
"There are a total of 20 years of education that most goblins attend, though it's not all consecutive. People with some work experience tend to gain much more from their class; most likely through the perspective that they acquired along the way."
"Professor, why do you suppose that humans were originally gifted with the ability to use magic?"
"That's an excellent question. Based on how you worded it, I gather that you envision magic as a gift that can be given or theoretically taken away. Is that correct?"
"Yes Sir. How else would someone view it?"
"As a right, though that seems like flawed logic to me."
"I know you're busy – last question. As students, why aren't we encouraged to use our magic to do good deeds and actually help people?"
"By people, are you including non-magicals?"
"Of course. We all walk on the same sidewalks and breathe the same air. We all have the ability to do good deeds. Any student would be able to repair a crack in a sidewalk without getting noticed."
"You are correct, Mr. Potter. I'll do better to encourage people to do good deeds. Thank you for your thoughts. It is back to work for me. Enjoy your afternoon. Thank you for stopping by."
"Thank you, Professor. I've always had the easiest time talking things out with you."
… - ...
At 11 that evening the hand-held two-way radio sounded. "Jones, this is Black. Our people are in position. Waiting for your signal."
Sirius Black may have spent the last nearly two years on the run, but good food, good friends, and a purpose in life had done so much good. Knowing that Pettigrew was occupying his old cell as a result of Sirius' long delayed trial didn't hurt either.
Gwenog Jones had volunteered to help. She'd accidentally bumped into Sirius after his trial. Though a couple of years younger than Black, they'd been friends at Hogwarts. She'd been blessed with strength, talent and a natural beauty that had landed her in the spotlight as one of the Beaters for the Holyhead Harpies.
As a teen, she'd run afoul of the dreaded magical sensor and jumped at the chance of helping the current batch of muggleborn students.
She had come to Sirius and begged to be on his team. Her kissing him had been accidental when he accepted, but even with his relationship with Remus, the animagus' inner animal was wagging his tail when the pretty dark-skinned girl had done so.
Moony was on the team as well. Dumbledore had sent Remus on more than one 'little errand' for the Order, and the kindly Were knew several people of dubious natures. With Mundungus Fletcher no longer around, Sirius had turned to his friend. Remus, in turn, turned to Thermite.
The charges were set, the building cleared out of all but a few elderly support staff. Their unnoticed portkeys would be going off in 3, 2, 1.
"Make sure that the building is empty, Moony," Sirius called on the mirror.
A final check of all mirrors in all monitored areas. Just in case there was a miscalculation and something went wrong.
"Zero-count. The building is clear."
"Charges going off in 3, 2, 1." Sirius hit the button.
Whoosh! The Thermite burned at 4,000 degrees. Within minutes, anything that was flammable in the building had burned, Anything that was metal had melted.
"OK, team. Scatter. We'll meet up later after our friends check to see if it worked." Sirius commanded.
"Don't you mean check to make sure that nothing inside works?" Jones asked.
"That too. The first three rounds are on me!" Black called out. They met at the Black Dog Pub, something that Moony found hilarious.
After the first round, Lupin announced "I have some other research to do. I'll see you back at the Bothy," Remus called out. "Good night. Good working with you, Miss Jones. Hope to see you again."
"You too, Mr Lupin. Call me Gwenog. I do hope to see you again as well."
"Remus. Or Moony." Lupin corrected gently, cuffing his life partner on the shoulder.
… - ...
Tuesday June 27
Malfalda Hopkirk received the early morning call to come to the spell sensing building. She walked into what was left of the building to discover that the entire magical sensor system had failed. No worse; had melted.
There were a few young Aurors around, but they were far too young to be of any use. Sniff! Where was someone responsible? Respectable. As if thinking of her summoned the witch, Amelia Bones came in to survey the damage.
"Director Bones! The Magical Net is ruined! Ruined!" Malfalda declared, pointing at key points that looked as though grey and black rivers had once flowed there, and then were frozen in time.
"Madam Hopkirk. We've known each other some time now. Other than Death Eater attacks that were completely overlooked by the those in charge, can you please tell me just what use we made of this device?"
"Use? We have to have it in order to monitor and censor muggleborns using magic in muggle areas! Why, look at Harry Potter! He's already had a warning for underage magic use! There would have been more if Albus Dumbledore hadn't interfered before the boy reached Hogwarts!"
Amelia sighed and wiped her charmed monocle in reflection. Amelia looked at the slagged leftovers of what was meant to be magical protection and instead used for magical oppression.
"No seven year-old doing accidental magic is given a warning. Take the morning and consider what was actually done with the magic of this device and the goal of your department. After that, I'd like to know what you'd like to do going forward. Just as a hint, my friend; it won't be looking for misbehavior among the muggleborns."
"What then? What will I do?" Mafilda asked in a soft voice.
"You need to tell me, my dear. You need to tell me," the Director stated, looking around the ruined device. There was no gold and likely no talent to recreate such a feat, and right now, Amelia didn't want it back, even if she was paid to accept it.
Meanwhile, Connie and Anna were looking over the wreckage. They could find no trace of magic and concluded that the device somehow overheated and caught fire.
… - ...
Wednesday June 28
The article on page four of the Daily Prophet caught Harry's attention
Magic Sensor Destroyed
Poor maintenance led to system meltdown
Harry had no remorse for the destruction of the device as it had been used against him when he'd been twelve and corrupted from it's original purpose of looking for unforgivables being cast. It's removal opened to door to an entire world of good deeds being cast this summer.
… - …
Before school let out, Harry talked with a dozen small groups of two-three students about the opportunity of doing good deeds over the summer.
The Creevey brothers saw a world of possibilities. Lavander and Parvari were thoughtful but didn't immediately commit to doing anything. Fred and George worried Harry as it appeared as if they were focused on pranking the entire country. Dean and Seamus were in and asked to be contacted.
Surprising no one, Ron scoffed and replied. "That's a stupid idea. Summer's the time to relax, not go off like some Boy Scout on Jamboree." Harry shook his head in disappointment at his friend's lack of ambition. Apparently Ron had been reading one of Dean's magazines while sitting on the throne.
Susan and Hannah committed to finding something good to do every week and volunteered to assist if he needed help with anything big. Additionally, they both had portkey watches and were fairly mobile.
Cho had no interest in the idea until Cedric sounded enthused.
Katie, Angelina and Alicia thought that it was a good idea and told him that they'd think of something.
Hermione had talked with Tracy Davis. She didn't commit to doing anything but said that she'd think about it. Hermione thought that was at least a start.
… - ...
Monday July 3
Cornelius Fudge awoke having had the strangest dream. An old man wearing workman clothing had walked up to him and suggested that he, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic should be spending his time doing good deeds for others like some Boy Scout. Naturally, he scoffed at the old man, threatened to have him arrested and pushed him out of the way. The nerve of him; he must have been some sort of muggle beggar, no doubt.
Fudge vowed to stay away from Red Currant Rum. He'd had similar dreams the two previous evenings as well. Rosmerta must have received a bad batch.
He'd never liked beggars. The fact that the old man in last night's dream strongly resembled his own father had made it worse. He should have shoved the old man aside earlier. He rubbed his face and thought about the day's tasks. He still hadn't received any news of Lucius and Amelia refused to assign people to look for him. Perhaps Dolores had heard from him. He showered and got dressed.
His wife, Sandy had prepared breakfast for the two of them. Over coffee she asked, "Didn't you shave today?"
He had. He felt his face; there clearly was stubble. He muttered, "I must have missed a spot." He went back upstairs, finished getting dressed, tied his tie, buttoned his vest and put his suit jacket on when he remembered his stubble. He grabbed his wand and did the shaving charm like he had thousands of times. He rubbed his hand over his cheeks. No change. He gave his wand a shake and said, "Lumos."
Nothing.
Annoyed, he went to his desk and picked up his spare wand and said, "Lumos."
Nothing.
Panic set in as he recalled the dreams, which now felt like nightmares. His magic was gone!
He called for the family house elf, Bobby who said, "Good morning, Mast... oooh, what happened?"
Fudge asked, "What do you mean?"
"Master's magic is gone. How did that happen?"
"I don't know. Don't tell anyone. I need you to do a few things for me today." He wrote out several pages of notes, then signed, applied his seal to the documents and sealed the envelopes shut before addressing them. He gave them back to Bobby and added, "Deliver them in this order, please and bring your carrying bag." The little elf disappeared.
An hour later, Bobby the elf was back. He'd brought back twelve million pounds notes. There was a considerable pile of bundles of twenty and fifty pound notes that were in wrappers. There was also a leather bound book that detailed how a 35,000G a year employee could have accumulated seven million galleons. Fudge said, "Thank you, Bobby. Could you light a fire in the fireplace for me as well?"
Two snaps of his finger and there were four logs burning in the study fireplace. Fudge asked to be alone and the remarkable magical being went about his other duties. Fudge spent the next hour ripping all of the pages out of his journal and crumpling them into balls before tossing them into the fire along with files of other documents that he wouldn't want made public.
… - ...
An hour earlier, Dolores Umbridge attempted to apparate to the ministry building. Nothing happened. She tried again with the same result. Like Fudge, she initially assumed that it was a wand issue and went inside the barn and opened the secret compartment to get her spare wand. Like Fudge, she tried a Lumos spell and got nothing.
While there was nearly a million galleons and several feet of muggle bills stacked inside the secret compartment safe hidden in the barn floor, it was meaningless to her. She went inside, drew a hot bath and never left the bathroom.
… - ...
Amelia Bones arrived at work at nine and greeted her assistant, Randi Bell, who said, "Minister Fudge's elf dropped this off for you a minute ago."
"Thanks Randi." She went to her office and opened the letter.
To the Wizengamot, C/O Amelia Bones
For pressing health reasons, I hereby resign my position as Minister of Magic, effective immediately.
Cornelius Oswald Fudge
She considered the stated and unstated message and silently wondered why he hadn't sent it to Dolores instead. She asked Randi to locate the unpleasant woman.
An hour later, after the Auror that she'd sent to her home to check on her had returned, the situation was more interesting. She debated calling another emergency meeting, then decided that the scheduled meeting tomorrow would be soon enough.
After the Auror had left, Randi commented, "given the twenty apparent vacancies in the Wizengamot, you would have the ability to make some real changes."
Amelia nodded in agreement.
… - …
Fudge arrived at his villa in Naples Italy via a Gringotts portkey watch that he'd been gifted. He called for Bobby and the remarkable elf arrived. While Bobby gave the ocean view Villa a complete cleaning, paying special attention to remove any evidence of previous house guests, Fudge went to the local bank and deposited most of the twelve million Pounds into his account. When he returned, He asked Bobby to invite his wife, Sandy to join him.
An hour later, she arrived. He said, "Join me on the Veranda; we can talk." Ten minutes later, he'd explained that somehow he'd lost his magic, been forced to resign as Minister due to a law that he'd allowed (via bribes) Lucius to push through, stating that those without magic were prohibited from working at the ministry. (Anti-squib) He added, "At least we'll have enough money to get by with."
She asked, "Are you done?"
Baffled by her words, he nodded. She looked around and commented, "At least you had the decency to clean the place up before calling me here. It's always awkward to find another woman's knickers stuffed under a cushion of the sofa. Cornelius, I'll grant you this, for 30 years at least you've been reasonably discrete in your dalliances with 20 somethings. Good God Cornelius, they're younger than your granddaughter. What were you thinking? Take the money that you withdrew this morning; I'll take what's left in the London vault. I'll ask Bobby to send you the deed to this place later today. Don't come back to Britain and I'll tell anyone who asks that I haven't seen you since the day that you used my elf to deliver your resignation letter.
"By the way, Dolores ended her life this morning. She had her magic taken away from her too. Hopefully she didn't keep a bribe journal as detailed as yours. I've closed the London vault and moved the money to a handful of safe instruments. This is a nice villa but I couldn't go to a restaurant without running into one of your little friends. What is it with you and waitresses? I'll miss coming here but that's life. Is there anything that you wanted to say before I leave?"
"I'm sorry."
"I expect you are but being sorry that you got caught isn't the sort of remorse that matters. Goodbye, Cornelius. Don't call for my elf again."
She disappeared.
… - …
While most of the students were spending their time on the train ride to London visiting, Harry and Hermione were talking with several small groups of students, holding short conversations. Hermione exchanged telephone numbers with, Susan, Hannah and the Creeveys. Harry got Ernie's and Justin's. He mentioned that he'd send Hedwig to several others.
After they'd met with Hermione, Susan and Hanna were talking excitedly about spending time at the beach in Folkstone where they lived near each other. They talked about ways that they could improve it. They were typical of the students; their good deeds wouldn't make the national news but it would improve their neighborhood.
Others like Pansy, Draco or Cormac Mclaggen had no interest in doing good deeds; let alone anything that was specifically targeted to help muggles. Draco remarked, "Potter and his little band of do-gooders are crazy. It's not our job to help muggles. It's the muggle's job to bow at our feet."
Cormac asked, "Have you heard from your parents since the Dark Lord called them?"
"No but Father told me that they frequently were gone for three to four days at a time in his service. He must have hundreds of things that need doing, starting with getting rid of the mudbloods like Granger.
Pansy nodded in agreement as Cormac made some truly disturbing suggestions. She added, "Then they need to get rid of the blood traitors like the Weasleys. They should have known better than siding with the animals, Disgusting."
… - ...
One car down, Crabbe and Goyle were having a similar conversation with a different perspective Neither one had ever held King of the world aspirations or illusions. Greg said, "Potter's been saying we should help people. We're good at that. Millie told me that it's OK to be helping people."
Vince replied, "Maybe our mums can get us started. It would be OK if we helped sombody who we didn't know. Our dads help people when they carry in the beer barrels. We can help too."
"OK. Thanks Vince."
Vince nodded and said, "Maybe we should get jobs helping carry in the beer barrels. Mr. Blackfoot said we could help him in the summer with his deliveries. That would be helping."
Greg replied, "That's a good idea. We'll ask our dads when we get home."
… - ...
A/Ns
For those who have left notes, thank you. We have planned this to be a four chapter story.
Vashon Beader wrote Pettigrew's confession and the magical sensor caper.
Apprentice Tom and I are also finishing up another tale. We plan to start posting it the first week of April.
Thanks for reading.