Harry nodded and took his book back, now appearing creeped out. "Heir Potter?" The Clerk asked.
"That picture, was of me, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger last year. With the addition of Ron's pet rat, Scabbers. A rat that is missing his toe, and Sirius just confirmed him to be Peter Pettigrew in his animagus form."
Neville stood up with a shocked exclamation. "Hold on! Scabber's is Peter Pettigrew? Harry, we let him sleep in our beds while Ron was in the infirmary!"
Harry nodded, looking green while everyone else murmured around them, a few of them looking green too, and outraged. "I know, and the Weasley's have had him in their home for eleven years..." He blanched. "And they have a daughter just starting Hogwarts in a few days."
Everyone gasped. Sirius had just identified the rat Scabbers as Peter Pettigrew, which meant the Weasley's unknowingly had a grown man, with, at the moment, doubtful moralities, in the same house as their now eleven year old daughter.
"Auror Dawlish, go get this rat." Amelia ordered.
"Now, Amelia, we can't just go seize some boys pet rat. All rats look the same." Fudge protested as Dawlish nodded and left. Nobody except Moody and Severus saw McNair slip out a side door. Presumably to go to the Weasley's. Moody got up and followed, telling Severus to stay behind, and show him the memory later.
"If there's a chance that is Peter Pettigrew, then it is my job to investigate. Especially with a young girl in the house." She said with a glare. "Besides, Minister, how many eleven year old common garden rats do you know of that's also missing a toe on the same exact hand Pettigrew cut off his finger?" She asked as she studied the picture further.
Fudge was sweating bullets. Not good, not good, not good! The press murmured amongst themselves that Fudge seemed very reluctant for all this to happen. It made them wonder just what their good minister was hiding.
The Clerk cleared his throat. "If I may, I have no further questions before me except for some clarification questions, but the prisoners answers were detailed enough, that I don't think they are needed. Administer the antidote, if you please." He said respectfully.
"Very well, we will proceed to the voting. I am adding the charge of being an unregistered animagus to the list." Fudge said grumpily. He knew he wouldn't be able to stick Sirius with any of the others. But he might be able to salvage something if he could charge the man in front of them with something.
"On the charge of membership in a criminal organization. Guilty or not guilty." He waited a few moments for the votes to come in. "Not guilty. Which would make the charges regarding his crimes within the organization null and void. On the charge of betraying the Potters to You-Know-Who resulting in the murders of James and Lily Potter and the attempted murder of Harry Potter, guilty or not guilty." A few moments, "Not guilty."
"On the charge of the murder of twelve Muggles, guilty or not guilty. Not guilty." He paused a moment to think. "I will wait for Dawlish to return with the pet rat until we declare the charge for murdering Peter Pettigrew. On the charge of being an unregistered animagus." He waited a moment before he breathed an inaudible sigh of relief. "Guilty. The mandatory punishment for not registering your animagus form is one year in Azkaban. Aurors."
"Now hold on!" Daniel stood up again before anybody else had a chance to protest. "Minister, he has already spent eleven years in Azkaban for crimes he did not commit. If you ask me, and I'm sure Heir Potter agrees, he has already served more than the mandatory punishment for not registering. What we should instead be debating is what kind of reparations the Ministry is going to make for such a grievous error." There were murmurs of agreement, while Sirius just sat there, going from watching Harry, to staring at Fudge with a raised eyebrow.
Fudge floundered for a bit before he finally conceded. "Very well!" He yelled. "But, you will be required to register before the Healers arrive to take you to St. Mungoes for evaluation." He warned Sirius, who just nodded.
"Actually, Minister," Griphook cut in. "Heir Potter-Black has already made arrangements with the goblins for Lord Black to be seen by our Healers."
Everyone blinked and turned to Harry, who just blinked and shuffled a bit before he shrugged. "Nothing against St. Mungoes, I just figured it would be a bit more..." He glanced towards the press. "Private." He finished. Sirius chuckled while the members of the press shifted.
What Harry didn't mention is that the goblins would ensure Dumbledore stayed out, and didn't try anything funny with Sirius. They didn't want to risk him charming or potioning Harry's father/godfather when he was still weak and relatively defenseless. After all, Harry would most likely be going to live with Sirius the next summer, so he was going to be a fairly big influence on Harry's life from now on.
"Very well, you will be required to register, then you will be taken straight to Gringotts, where you will stay until the Healers there declare you fit to leave, or other arrangements are made for your care." Everyone ignored the angry shifting and murmurs of those who spoke out against goblin intelligence. "The Ministry will grant you 1,000,000 Galleons in apology. We know it will not give you back the past eleven years, but we ask that you accept it and our deepest regrets that this happened."
Sirius nodded slowly and stood up, accepting his wand when Amelia handed it to him. "Who has current guardianship over Harry?" He asked softly, the first he had spoken on his own since being let out of his cell.
It was Sharpaxe who answered. "His current guardians are sitting in Muggle prison, waiting for their trial before the combined court for embezzlement of funds." The among other things went unsaid, but Sirius's next question proved that he heard it.
"Muggle prison? Don't tell me you were given to Petunia." He begged Harry. Harry wouldn't meet his eyes though.
"We will discuss this somewhere more private." Griphook suggested as Sharpaxe wandered closer to the press area and whispered harshly to them, probably threatening to bankrupt them if they printed anything without Sharpaxe's express permission. Especially Rita Skeeter, although in her case he just let her know that between the Potter and Black families, Harry and Sirius owned the Prophet. The goblins were already going to ensure the trial was completely private. Every human involved would be spelled to ensure they couldn't say anything about it to anyone (the press), and the courtroom itself would be spelled so animagi would be detected and expelled.
The goblins knew Rita Skeeter was an animagus. Their wards registered it every time she stepped foot in the bank. They just didn't tell people they had wards like that. All it would accomplish was getting the Ministry on their backs again about giving up the secret for their wards.
Sirius nodded. "If he has no guardians, then..."
Griphook interrupted. "You have automatic, undisputed guardianship since you are at the top of the list in both Lily and James wills, and since you blood-adopted the boy. There is nothing anybody can do legally to get him away from you." Harry moved closer to Sirius, who grinned at him.
Suddenly, Harry frowned. "Hey, Sharpaxe? Since Dumbledore was clearly not trusted by my parents when they wrote their wills, then why was he the only human witness?"
"Because he's the Chief Warlock. You read through the law book Madam Longbottom has, right?" Harry nodded. "Do you remember reading anything about a policy where the Chief Warlock has to sign off on wills and things for the Most Ancient and Noble Houses? It's easily the most unpopular policy among the other Houses, as it is rightly perceived as the Ministry trying to poke their noses where it doesn't belong, it would have only come into practice about fifteen years ago." He ignored how the Ministry officials on the Wizengamot and the Minister bristled, but they couldn't say anything since they were also surrounded by the heads, Heirs, and other representatives of those same Houses Sharpaxe just mentioned.
"Oh. The will wasn't a legal document unless Dumbledore was there to witness it and sign off. Without that, it was just a bunch of words." Harry said in realization. Sharpaxe nodded. Harry frowned. "Well, that's stupid. How is it any of the Ministry's business what the Heads bequeath and to who? That's private family business between those the Will mentions." There were a few murmured 'exactly's' coming from the Wizengamot. Sharpaxe just grinned ferally. Privately, Harry added that he hadn't been too happy about having his parents wills read in front of the whole Wizengamot, especially the press, but it was needed to get Sirius freed and begin the process of discrediting Dumbledore. After all, he knowingly ignored the contents of the Will of the Lord and Lady of House Potter and then withheld their sons inheritance from him. That was a serious matter.
"They tried to get somebody else there, to have another human witness, but... Dumbledore blocked them at every turn. Eventually, they had to concede defeat and just write their wishes already, trusting that we could keep Dumbledore in line if he tried anything. Unfortunately, Dumbledore acted before we even realized anything had happened, and they underestimated the prejudices within these walls that goblins face."
"I still don't get that." Harry said, shaking his head. Sharpaxe shrugged. There wasn't anything they could do about it.
Yet.
Right at that moment, Dawlish came back, dragging a rat-like figure behind him and followed by Moody, who was dragging another figure behind him, grumbling the whole time about idiots not having constant vigilance.
Dawlish left the fiasco that had started out as a normal, boring Wizengamot session with a bit of relief. The entire time, he'd been trying very hard not to bust a gut laughing at the way Minister Fudge was being walked all over by a twelve year old and a couple of goblins.
Granted, it was the most influential twelve year old in magical Britain along with the Prince of the Goblin Nation, but still.
Shaking his head, he took another moment to collect himself before Apparating to the Burrow. Frowning, he noticed that the place almost seemed... different. At first glance, it didn't look like anything changed, but when he looked closer, there were subtle differences.
The hen house looked like it had the walls replaced, the house itself looked more stable, and he could feel that the wards had been updated and even added to.
He sighed and went to knock. If he was going to take away a boys pet, he could at least be polite about it.
"Auror Dawlish. To what do we owe this pleasure?" Arthur asked in surprise when he opened the door.
"Business, I'm afraid, Arthur. I'm afraid I'm here for your sons rat. There's a possibility it may be an Animagus hiding out here." Dawlish said quietly.
Arthur stiffened in shock, "But we just got the ward scheme updated, with Animagus wards. They haven't registered any animagi coming or going." He said.
"They wouldn't if the Animagus in question was already here, and then never left." Dawlish said.
Arthur looked troubled. "He is very old..." Finally, he turned and gestured for Dawlish to follow him inside and into the kitchen. "Wait here, I'll go get him." He walked out muttering about how he would have to move fast to Stun him or he'd slip away.
As he left, Molly and Ginny walked in. "Dawlish. I didn't know you were coming by, tea?" She asked as she moved towards the pot.
"No, thanks. Arthur is just getting something for me, then I have to head back." He said with a polite nod.
They were interrupted by a shout from outside, even as Arthur ran downstairs clutching a rat in one hand and brandishing his wand in the other. He tossed the Stunned rat to Dawlish, then continued his way outside, with Dawlish following even while he conjured a cage and stuffed the rat inside.
He was not expecting to find Walden McNair and Moody fighting, with Arthur lying Stunned on the ground. Apparently, he must have chosen a bad moment to run out, and ran right into a Stunner. Either that, or Moody didn't want him getting in the way, Dawlish thought as he watched Alastor fighting. He debated joining them, but changed his mind in favor of keeping his grip on the cage when McNair took a moment out of his fight to try and summon it to him when his presence was noticed. His moment cost him dearly though, and he was very quickly scrambling back onto the defensive.
Dawlish placed a hasty anti-summoning charm on the cage before he started peppering McNair with various Stunners and Disarming charms, trying to finish the fight quickly so they could get back to the Wizengamot session turned criminal trial. Moody was throwing everything he could think of at him, non-lethal of course, they did want to question him, although a few, like the blood-boiling curse Moody threw out, made Dawlish question how worried the old Auror was about having a prisoner to interrogate. McNair managed to hold on for several minutes, that was, until the new wards the Weasley's got put up activated.
He was blasted with a high-powered Stunner, from somewhere in the general direction of the front door. When Dawlish looked, there was nobody there, although he saw Molly looking out the front window, looking worried while she shielded her daughter's eyes from the fight even as she held her wand out in front of her. He shook his head and went to wake up Arthur.
"Whoa," He looked around. "Did you really have to stun me?" He demanded of Moody.
Moody shrugged. "I didn't want you getting in the way. Besides, these goblin wards have a tendency to retaliate against attackers if the one controlling them is knocked unconscious by magical means for a certain amount of time." He grinned.
Arthur's jaw dropped. "You knocked me out just so you could have the use of my wards?! Are you insane?" He demanded.
Moody's grin grew wider, which only made him look more terrifying. "They do call me mad." He said with a smirk. He stomped over to McNair. "Now, why would you be coming here. You wouldn't be after Pettigrew, would you?" He mused. He grabbed McNair's left arm and pushed up the sleeve, revealing the Dark Mark.
"Well, well. Look'ee here. Dawlish, cast a revealing charm on that rat." He ordered. There was a scream from inside the house when Dawlish did so, forcing Pettigrew back to his human form when he glowed red. Arthur stared at Pettigrew.
"I don't want to know what is going on, just get that thing out of my house, and away from my children, before you don't have a person to interrogate." He growled, staring at Pettigrew. "And you better hope that thing stayed away from my daughter." He glared at Pettigrew the entire time Moody and Dawlish grabbed the two Death Eaters and apparated away with them.
When they landed in the atrium of the Ministry, Dawlish turned to Moody, "Why were you there? Not that I'm complaining."
"I saw this one slip out, just after you left. Figured it wasn't for a cup of tea. Decided to follow him. Glad I did. I'm sure you could have held him, but... it's been a while since I've seen any real action." Moody grunted as he grabbed his hostage by the arm and started dragging him along behind, not caring who saw or that McNair got scraped up in the process.
"Huh." Dawlish said, as he did the same, making sure his prisoner wasn't going to wake up and scurry away as a rat any time soon. "What did you think of the trial? Sirius and James were your protege's, weren't they?"
Moody grunted. "They were. I should have looked into Sirius's case more than I did years ago... I knew something was off, but..." He shook his head. "I'll talk to him later. The last thing I need is Sirius Black mad at me. Especially a Sirius Black who was trained by me and was later promoted to Hit-Wizard under that training."
"Aw, come on, Mad-Eye. We both know you could have gotten that promotion anytime. If you hadn't turned it down so many times, anyway."
"I didn't turn it down. Not the first time anyway." Moody said. He stopped and turned around. "There's a reason why people accuse me of being so paranoid, boy." He turned and started stomping away again.
Dawlish stood there for a moment and stared after him, before he scrambled to catch up to him, and actually reached past him to go in first when they reached the Wizengamot's courtroom. Whatever conversation that had been going on ended as soon as the door opened and Dawlish went in, still dragging Pettigrew. "We found Peter Pettigrew, Arthur was getting him for me when McNair there decided to attack. I might have lost the little rat if Moody hadn't seen him leave here and decide to follow." He said as he dragged Pettigrew to the middle of the room and threw him into the chair set there, making sure the magic-dampening chains rose to trap him.
The entire time, as soon as they stepped foot in the room with Pettigrew, Sirius was glaring at the man and growling, with Potter holding onto his arm, ready to hold him back if need be.
"Well, then I suppose that makes the charges regarding Peter Pettigrew's death null and void as well." The Clerk murmured, staring at Pettigrew with distaste.
"Wait! We still do not know that that is Pettigrew!" Fudge blustered.
Dawlish watched Potter meet Lord Greengrasses eyes and nod. A moment later, Lord Greengrass stood, "House Potter requests the use of Veritaserum to determine the truth of the matter." He said. "The questions used for Lord Black should be sufficient for a starting point."
"Either way you look at it, Minister, he was still found hiding at the Weasley house, as a rat, that alone would see him arrested for trespassing at the very least. Not to mention possibly endangering the Weasley family." Dawlish pointed out. He vaguely noticed Harry helping Sirius up the stairs to the Black seat before Harry himself went back to his own seat with the rest of the Heirs.
Sirius set a stark contrast to the other richly dressed Lords around him, considering he was still in his prison robes. He had clearly been allowed to clean up a bit, but nobody had bothered to give him new clothes. The person in charge of the prisoners in the holding cells clearly hadn't wanted to waste the time when Sirius was only going to go right back to his cell when the Wizengamot were done with him.
"Clerk, I know this is very short notice, but I'm putting it on notice that I'm claiming my family seats. And until the Goblin Healers clear me, I hope Lord Greengrass doesn't mind if I ask him to proxy? If Harry trusts him, then that's good enough for me."
Daniel stood, "I would be honored to help all I can until you are back on your feet again." He said with a small nod.
The Clerk sighed. This was definitely the most interesting Wizengamot session he had ever attended. "Very well, the notice is received. Lord Greengrass?"
Daniel nodded to him and once again raised his wand, "I, Lord Daniel Greengrass of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Greengrass, do accept the duties and responsibilities of the House Black in all political affairs, and pledge to uphold my duties honorably and responsibly." This time, the seat Sirius was sitting in, glowed silver and black.
Fudge groaned softly. How did this day go so wrong? And since when did the Clerk start running the Wizengamot?! "Auror, just wake the man up and give him Veritaserum already. Clerk, use the questions from Lord Black's... trial to start with. Amelia, I trust you can come up further questions as needed?" He asked tiredly.
"Of course." She said as she stared at Pettigrew. "Auror Shacklebolt. Take McNair to the holding cells, make sure he stays there, and only I can come see him." Fudge looked like he was going to argue, but one glance towards the press was enough for him to keep his mouth shut.
"Yes, ma'am." Kingsley said as he took Moody's burden. Moody went back to his seat by Severus, who cocked an eyebrow.
Moody looked at him and grunted that he would keep quiet about his involvement in all this to the Headmaster. Severus breathed a short sigh of relief. Tension that he hadn't even noticed was there was suddenly gone, and he felt about a hundred pounds lighter.
"Name?" Severus's attention was drawn back to the floor when he heard the Clerk ask that, looking down, he realized that Peter had already been given Veritaserum. Briefly, he panicked and thought the idiot rat would probably reveal the nature of his relationship with Harry, before he remembered that Peter hadn't known. They kept it as quiet as possibly while still making sure the right paperwork was filled out. He wasn't even sure if Remus Lupin knew.
All Peter and Remus knew was that the Marauders stopped being enemies with Severus back in fifth year, even if only in private.
"Peter Pettigrew." The crowd murmured. The Clerk shot them a look to shut them up.
"Former occupation?"
"Shopkeeper for the Potter Apothecary." Harry stiffened. His father gave this rat a job, and he turned around and betrayed them.
"Alright then. Are you a Death Eater?"
"Yes." The murmuring started again, and this time it was angry. The Clerk let off a bang with his wand, like a gunshot.
"Need I remind all of you that I am the only one permitted to speak while the prisoner is under the influence of Veritaserum." He said calmly before turning back to the prisoner. "Were you the Potter's Secret Keeper?" He asked just as Amelia slipped him a parchment with questions she wanted asked.
"Yes." People shifted angrily, but didn't dare speak. Now that the Clerk had given them a verbal warning, he could kick them out if he wanted. Whether they were part of the public or members of the Wizengamot. They could all hear Sirius growling though, seemed his dog animagus bled through to his human form.
"What was your primary job within You-Know-Who's forces?" The Clerk asked, switching from Harry's list of questions to Amelia's.
"i spied on the Order of the Phoenix, and I snuck in and out of important places to steal documents or map them out so it would be easier to break in and attack. I found people my Lord marked as enemies who were stupid enough to think they could hide." Peter suddenly sounded entirely too satisfied with himself. "I personally delivered the McKinnon's and Prewett brothers to my Lord."
Lord Abbot's eyes widened as he remembered something and in the next second he was lunging to keep the new Lord Black in his seat. The Clerk looked very annoyed when he looked to find out what the disturbance was this time. Severus was stunned. He couldn't help but think he'd failed miserably as a spy. He knew of none of this.
"What is it now?" Fudge called. He, too, was getting annoyed.
Lord Abbot finally got the man seated again, even if he had to stick him to the chair and put a silencing charm on him, "Does anybody here have a calming draught on them?" He asked. Severus stood up, and started digging in the inner pocket of his robes. Finally pulling out the asked for potion and holding it up. Lord Abbot looked at him and muttered, "Figures the Potion Master would have such a random potion on him." Before he summoned it and forced Sirius to drink it.
He stood up and sighed softly before turning to the rest of the room. "Sorry about that, Marlene McKinnon was his fiance, and several weeks pregnant when she was killed." He announced quietly. Everyone could see Sirius glaring at Pettigrew, he was still very angry despite the potion in his system.
People gasped, and the Clerk swallowed, glancing towards Harry to find him alternating between glaring at Pettigrew, and watching Sirius with worry in his eyes. He turned back to the prisoner and cleared his throat softly, marking down the crimes Pettigrew had already confessed to that they would have to charge him with. Normally, this would be the Chief Warlock's job, in this case the Minister's. But the Minister was just sitting there, staring at Pettigrew in horror, as if the man had killed his puppy and he was trying to understand why.
"Describe what happened that night. Halloween of '81." He said.
"My Lord summoned me, and let me come with him even though he told everyone else to stay behind." He sounded almost giddy with the thought. "I waited outside while he took care of my old friends. I heard James yelling, then nothing until the roof over the nursery caved in. When I went to investigate, I saw a pile of robes on the floor with my Lords wand sitting next to them. The brat was crying and Lily was dead. I picked up the wand of my Lord and went to kill the brat too when I heard somebody coming upstairs. I turned into my rat form and escaped just as Severus Snape ran in." Eyes turned towards Severus. Some were suspicious, others were grateful.
Severus's blood had run cold. If he had shown up just a few seconds later... his godson would have been gone. He didn't let any of this show on his face though. Only Moody saw him swallow thickly.
The Death Eaters and much of the public were suspicious of why he was there. The Death Eaters and much of the public were suspicious of why he was there. The Death Eaters because they thought he was their Second in Command, and yet he was there and he didn't kill the boy. The public was suspicious because they didn't trust him, partly due to the rumors of him being the Second in Command, partly because of his attitude.
The Clerk nodded. "You said you picked up You-Know-Who's wand. What did you do with it?"
"I hid it. After everyone left, I went back to Godric's Hallow. It should still be in the house somewhere." People gasped. Amelia turned to an Auror standing to the side and snapped her fingers at him, motioning for the door. Moody stood up to watch the room, letting everyone know he was watching to make sure nobody went anywhere.
Severus frowned. He knew the goblins had locked down Godric's Hallow, and then later on gone in and removed everything to a vault belonging to the Potter Family as soon as the Ministry announced their intentions to turn the house into a National Monument. The goblins hadn't been able to stop them beyond making sure nobody went in and turned it into an actual museum.
When the Ministry put up preservation charms to leave the place in the ruin it had become, the goblins tore them down and repaired the house under special made illusion charms that made it look like nothing happened, like it was still under the preservation charms.
But he couldn't remember Sharpaxe mentioning that he found a strange wand inside, and Severus would know, he was the one to identify James and Lily's wands, as well as to confirm that the small, goblin made knife found in the Nursery didn't belong to either James or Lily.
Sharpaxe was the only one to leave with the Auror. This was a Potter family property after all, no matter what the Ministry tried to say otherwise. Nobody dared say anything about it with Harry in the room. Even if they would have dearly liked to.
Griphook passed the Clerk a parchment with a request on it, which he grudgingly granted. On the condition that Amelia be there to ensure he didn't try to ask anything he shouldn't.
Inside the Silencing ward Griphook set up once he and Amelia stood in front of the prisoner, he would not have agreed to allow her to overhear this conversation if he didn't know her integrity and the fact that he really needed to know this, Griphook asked straight out, "How did you escape detection when our Warding team went to add to the Weasley families ward scheme?" To Amelia, he said that the teams made it a point of casting Animagus detection charms on a property before activating new Animagus wards.
"There is a spell the Marauder's created, it hides the Animagus's presence." He answered.
"What is this spell?" Griphook demanded. This spell put Gringotts security at risk, as well as the reputation of their Warding teams. He had to know what it was so they could figure out how to counter it. Once he knew, he nodded in satisfaction. He was, for now, satisfied that there was now only four humans who knew of the existence of this spell, Pettigrew, Amelia, Sirius, and Remus Lupin. Well, unless James taught it to Lily and Severus.
When they came out of the Silencing wards, the Clerk looked at Amelia, and she bit her lip. She had one more thing she needed to know. The Clerk looked down at the parchment she passed him and gulped. "During your time with the Weasley's, how often, if ever, did you change back to your human form?"
"Almost every night."
"And what did you do during those nights?" The whole room seemed to hold its breath.
"I'd go outside, or go to the girls room and watch her. Sometimes, I'd go into the Muggle world and find some girl to play with." Most of the room looked like they were going to be sick.
"Anything else, Amelia?" The Clerk asked tightly. She shook her head no. At least the worse he did with Ginny was watch, as creepy as that was. There was nothing they could do about the Muggle women though, somehow she doubted Pettigrew would have ever even bothered to learn their names, and they didn't know if he killed them or left them alive.
Any other questions she might want to ask him, wouldn't be the type she should really ask in public like this. They wouldn't have any affect on his sentencing though. Luckily, she had McNair, she would soon have him singing like a bird.
"Give him the antidote. We shall move on to the charges and sentencing." The Clerk announced.
At Flourish and Blotts
The shopkeeper, John Greene, stood nervously in front of his boss, having just presented his findings on his quest for answers.
A quest that started when Professor Severus Snape tore the books of Gilderoy Lockhart to shreds with just a few well-placed words.
The first thing he had looked at was the time-line of each book, only to find they didn't add up at all, just like Professor Snape said. Then he went through them again, checking various Magical Creatures references. Then he went through a third time, checking Defense books and double checking that he didn't miss anything earlier. Now, two weeks later, his results were unmistakable.
Gilderoy Lockhart was a giant fraud.
The only reason he could think of for the Fraud to be a professor was to generate book sales. Which was probably the worse crime of the two as far as he, a former Ravenclaw, was concerned, since he was interfering in and obstructing the education of an entire generation. And in one of the most important subjects no less!
What were the fifth and seventh years going to do? They weren't going to pass their Defense exams with the Fraud there.
He was pulled out of his thoughts when his boss set the research down and leaned back in his chair. He breathed a sigh of relief when his boss didn't chew him out for what he found out. "This isn't good. Issue a recall, I want all those books we sold back. Especially the ones sold to students, focus on them first. Get in touch with Professor McGonagall, ask her what books she would recommend for the students this year. Once we get the Lockhart books back, I want the new Defense books sent out to the students, we will have to wait though, and see who sends them back so we can just send the owl straight back... We're going to have to send people their money back too... those books are expensive. In the case of the students, send them their money minus the cost of the new Defense book. You'll have to get a list of current students from the Professor too, that way we know who gets a Defense book, and which one based on what year they are in." He sagged in his chair and sighed, rubbing a hand down his face. "Keep the recall as quiet as possible for now. While you do that, I will take your findings to the DMLE. I should probably send a copy to the Hogwarts Board of Governors too, and maybe the copy-right office..." He said thoughtfully.
"I'll work on the recall notice right now." John said as he left.
Mr. Smith leaned forward and onto his desk. This was going to cost them a lot of money. Good thing they made enough that it wouldn't bankrupt them.
"Doxy!" He called. The shops House-elf popped in with a 'Yes, sir?' "Help John go through the sale records, look for anyone who bought Lockhart books. Pay special attention to the seven on the Hogwarts book list. And then go see what our inventory is like on real Defense books. Order more if you have to."
"Nasty man with the glittery teeth is getting his books recalled?!" Doxy squealed happily, clapping her hands together. "Yes, sir! Doxy help!" She popped out again, still squealing in happiness. He smiled. He knew she would like that, Lockhart was quite rude to her.
He had long ago given her permission to kick out anyone who disrespected her or the books. Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to allow her to kick Lockhart out, considering he was the 'main attraction' that day. He groaned and started to pull out his accounts book. He was going to have to rearrange his finances for a bit.
He was about to lose a lot of money.
But he would not allow such abominations to exist in people's houses. Especially people who took everything they said as fact, that was just dangerous, and somebody was going to get killed.
"Hey, dad, have you seen Scabbers? I usually feed him around this time, but I can't find him." Ron said as he came into the kitchen. "Hey, is something wrong?" He asked when he noticed how tense his father was.
"Yeah, everything's fine. Ah, about Scabbers, uh, hold on a moment while I call your siblings in here. This is something the whole family needs to hear." Arthur said, forcing a smile on his face.
Ron slowly sat down at the kitchen table, wondering what was going on. Why on earth would Scabbers missing a meal warrant a family meeting? He watched as Arthur opened the back door to call everyone in from the outside, although if he remembered right, Percy said something about heading down to the village for a bit for something.
When Arthur was sure everyone who was outside was now on their way in, he called up the stairs to see where Molly was. She hadn't spoken a word since Dawlish revealed Scabbers to really be a wizard, in fact, he had a feeling she was currently going through all their pictures and spelling Scabbers out of them. "Molly, dear, can you come to the kitchen? I called a family meeting to discuss the rat." He called. He waited a moment until he heard her footsteps on the stairs.
When he went back to the kitchen, he saw that all the kids were there, even Bill. "What are you doing home? I thought you would be back in Egypt by now?" He asked.
"Yeah, I'm just finishing something up for the goblins, my work in Egypt is actually on hold until I finish, and I don't know when I'll finish." Bill said with a shrug. They had actually already found one of the Horcruxes, it was in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault. They guessed that it took less time to find that one since it was already in the bank. Which meant it was under the same wards as the rune sets Bill set up to find the soul-pieces. The others were going to take longer to find due to whatever protective enchantments and other wards they might be under.
For example, if it was under Black or Potter family wards, they were probably never going to find it. The wards those families came up with had even the goblins drooling. Especially their magical-concealment wards that ensured whatever magic was done inside, never registered on any kind of instrument or rune-set outside.
"What's this about, dad?" Percy asked as he sat down. He had just been coming up the drive when he heard his dad calling them all into the kitchen. "Did you get a message from Gringotts or something?"
"No, no. Let's just wait for your, ah, here she is. All right, well... earlier today, Auror Dawlish came by the house. When you all were out playing Quidditch. He asked to see Scabbers, he said there was a possibility that Scabbers... wasn't Scabbers."
"Wasn't Scabbers, what's that supposed to mean?" Ron asked, he was really confused.
"Well, you kids know what an animagus is, right? A wizard that can turn into an animal. Well, it seems that Scabbers was really an Animagus. I recognized him, too. Peter Pettigrew. If the Auror was here, under suspicion that our rat wasn't as he seemed he was, then I suspect something big is going on in the Wizengamot right now."
"Dad, that rat couldn't have been Pettigrew, I mean, he's dead." Ron said, looking pale and a little shaky. "I mean, Scabbers can't be anything except a rat, I let him sleep in my bed, Percy had him for years! He didn't do anything to us, so why... It can't have been Pettigrew living here." He said, denying it with everything he had. He was starting to ramble now, and he was slowly starting to work himself up into a panic as his dad refused to say the whole thing was a joke. He was so desperate for it not to be true. The rest of his siblings were all sitting in shocked silence, but they were having an easier time of it since Scabbers wasn't theirs and didn't sleep in their beds, ever.
Percy was so still, that his parents thought he turned into a statue. They eyed him carefully even as Molly retrieved a Calming Draught and force fed it to Ron. When Percy finally moved, he turned to his father. "Obliviate me, please. I don't want to remember anything about that rat. I want to forget everything about him." He begged.
Molly and Arthur exchanged broken and concerned looks before they moved to hug their third son. They knew they couldn't obliviate him, the rat, back when he was still just a pet, played an integral part of Percy's childhood. The rat went almost everywhere with him, even if they did try, there were too many memories.
Arthur hugged him from behind, while Molly was in front. It quickly turned into a family group hug, as the other Weasley children all got up to join in, with Bill carefully guiding a now shell shocked but potioned Ron into the middle of the group.
"We'll be alright," Arthur murmured in Percy's ear. Louder, he said, "We will all be alright."