Delton Dawlish sat on the couch in his living room, head in his hands, murmuring to himself when his wife stepped in. She saw his white pasty face and slight shaking hands when he looked up. He refused to meet her eyes.

She sat next to him in concern and rubbed his back, asking what was wrong.

"I do not like who I have become over the years," he sighed. "I was a good Auror. Honest, quick, fierce. I hate lying. I hate disregarding and disrespecting the rules set to lead a honest and humble life, and here I am, having been corrupted by keeping my life to take care of an illegal imprisoned baby. A baby! Then, in my attempt, several years too late, I do many a illegal thing myself. Things I have imprisoned people for in the past. Even went and gone as far as to accept a deal with a bad, bad man which in turn, leads to many more uncovered truths and wrongdoings where I, unknowingly, had a hand in. I am.. disgusted by myself. I killed my morals and values."

"As that may be, all you can do is push forward take and fix and reset yourself," She kept rubbing his back as he went back to muffle his face in his hands. "What brought this on, my Sweet?"

"The memories I viewed. I made so many wrong turns and lost myself. Lost what I kept in high regard and promoted myself to be even if it was gone long ago."

"Care to share? We'll set you right, together."

"I love you." He mumbled and pulled her into his lap, hugging her and her brightness self to anchor and dispel his bout of depressing thoughts.

Tea was made and Delton sat with his wife on the couch where he took a moment to compose himself, sipping tea and thinking on exactly how to explain the situation. Ethel was ever patient and kept a comforting hand on her husbands arm until he was ready.

"I have finally pieced it together," Delton finally said, tea gone cold a long time ago. "Between the files, the statements, my digging in the department and the few comments from the Minister, I managed to make sense of the situation thanks to Rodolphus Lestranges memories, I think I know what is going on.. At the very least I know what let to have the events on Halloween happen and who the boy is."

Delton ran his hands over his face. "I do not know where it'll lead to but now I can do something."

"So, what exactly is the story so far?" She asked and Delton hummed.

He tapped his fingers as he summed it all up. "I now know why Voldemort went after the Longbottoms and the Potters and who had a hand in it and what happened afterwards.

"You see; Dumbledore had Snape listening in to a part of a prophecy made by a googly eyed weird lady at the Hogs Head. Snape made a runner and told Voldemort after he was ejected by the Inn keeper, despite not knowing the full wording. That's where it all set of. No doubt, Dumbledore set Young Snape up for failure. He was the one who orchestrated it from the beginning.."

He thought for a bit. "I think. Allegedly." He took his time explaining the theory he had. He was fairly certain Voldemort did not know of the meeting taking place gauged by the reaction of shock when Snape delivered the news. He then proceeded to tell about how Rodolphus had included a memory where Snape confided in him that he had an unexpected meeting at the Hogs Head and if Rodolphus could cover for his missing time. "I'm still saying its a maybe for Rodolphus could've used that memory to set me up, if the second memory happened months after the first."

"Set up or not, I still have to admit, even with those memories they are grave accusations. Dumbledore is the leading figure of the Light." Ethel answered but Delton hushed her.

"I know, there's more to that than what I just said but I'll tell the whole, otherwise I don't think it'll make much sense."

Ethel motioned for him to continue. Their children weren't at home, so she and her husband had the whole day and night if needed, to go over Delton's story and findings. They would connect the dots eventually and get their unofficial son safe.

"Voldemort send his followers, after determining which family fit the prophecy." Delton said and took a brief moment to question his wife whether or not she remembered the people behind the names he was to use. "Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Rastaban Lestrange were send to the Longbottom estate. However, Bellatrix had a hard time following orders."

Ethel could fill it in. "She tortured the Longbottoms."

Delton nodded. "She fell out of line. Her objective was to interrogate, not maim and one of the crimes listed on Rastaban's file was him joining in on her fun but Rodolphus memories showed he was merely there, didn't hurt a fly that day."

"If I remember correctly, didn't you say that his wand proved he used an unforgivable?"

"The wand only shows what's cast, not by whom." Delton said, knowing it a flaw. "Bellatrix used his wand."

Ethel shook her head and got up. She collected the tea cups and went into the kitchen, Delton trailing after her. They discussed the problems of such evidence in court and how it could affects ones sentence. They both knew the result it had on Rastaban's conviction.

"Anyway," Delton said as he sat back down on the couch with a fresh cup of tea. Still very distressed, although the small break in the heavy topic had eased him a little. "Once they were done at the Longbottoms, Voldemort took the three and a few others to the Potter residence."

"We all know how that went."

"Actually, we don't. I do now, though and it'll surprise you."

"Oh?" Ethel questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"What if I told you, they met for tea?"

"I'd say you're joking."

"Only I'm not," Delton said, voice still full of disbelief as he thought back to the memory and slowly sipped his tea.

"Voldemort and his followers had appeared at the Potters residence and simply invited their selves in for tea. I saw it all. At first, Lily Potter had tried to keep him out but Voldemort was a charming young man. Even with the signs of dark magic already coming through in the form of blood red eyes and runes carved into his skin he won her over with a parlay offer. with that promise of Parlay she had let them in. I assure you, some of his followers were as stunned as I was with how easy she gave in, especially considering with how long they had been hiding.

"They went over the prophecy, what it meant and how to deal with it. All seemed fine, civil, until one of the followers discovered the small Potter boy being abused. Things went downhill from there and from Rodolphus point of view, Dumbledore arrived at the nick of time. Voldemort had stunned both parents and was in the middle of levitating the boy when he was hit by Dumbledore in the back."

"I need more then that," Ethel rapidly fired of questions at her husband while she settled her cup down and stared at her husband with the same disbelief etched on her face as was present in his telling. "I'm so confused!"

"They were discussing the prophecy over a cup of ginger tea and newt cookies, that much was clear, right?" Delton had his wife nodding and went on. "Rodolphus was poking in closets and cupboards to make sure Voldemort was safe inside an enemies house and two big men went up to grab the man of the house because he hadn't come down. They came back just as Rodolphus pulled a battered child out of the hallway closet, a silencing charm over him."

"Please tell me what the boy-" Ethel couldn't finish her sentence.

"I know that in your line of job you see horrible things but I will not indulge you. The child was being abused, that's all you're going to hear. It was bad enough that I had to see for myself."

Ethel begrudgingly agreed and motioned for Delton to carry on.

"Well, Voldemort called an immediate ending to the Parlay and stunned both parents. He levitated the child to bring it to its room. I heard him say that he would treat the child there, as it would be easier to have the little boy on his bed and a bathroom nearby. He made one of the brutes draw a bath.

"As he went up the stairs, Dumbledore arrived, who know how he knew. Might have had a spell on the parents to alert him just in case something happened. Anyway he rushed after Voldemort and Rodolphus noticed and shot after him. Dumbledore hit Voldemort in the back an to make this a long story short, I recognized the runes on his skin and my best explanation is that Voldemort had a split soul. His split soul reacted unwillingly by the man himself when the spell hit him in the back and another piece broke off. Judging by the lights surrounding him and the boy, the soul piece got imbedded in the boy."

"That's insane!"

"But pretty much the truth." Delton paled again. "Rodolphus was frozen at the sight he saw but Dumbledore did not notice him as he took the child, went down and killed the parents while the boy was watching. He apparated away when the tell tale signs of Aurors arriving were heard. Rodolphus gave a shout as his brother to get out and get out now. Rodolphus has learned how to trail apparition as he set pursuit on Dumbledore but he was too late as when he caught up, he saw Dumbledore walk into the Ministry."

"That's when he came into your care."

Delton nodded. "I think so."

"This is a lot to take in." Ethel admitted and Delton agreed. They talked for a while about the ending of the war. The followers had been rounded up or killed at the fight, Voldemort body was found and while the Aurors set on finding the few still at large, the world was celebrating.


In the morning, after a night of cuddles Ethel found Delton Dawlish getting ready for the day.

"What are you doing?" She asked when she saw that Delton was shaving and wearing his Auror robes.

"I'm shaping up." He resolutely stated. "I'm going into work today. I've been on leave long enough and I have quite a case to make."

"What will you do?"

"Get Rastaban case officially reopened and reviewed again. Many of Rodolphus memories were given with the sole purpose to prove his brother's innocence. That ye included the plot and Halloween was just a bonus. I'll have to ask a lawyer and an unspeakable for documentation to approve the memories authentication and approved to court and then I just have to figure out how to make sure the Ministry understands that Rodolphus is a key player, from the many other memories in the pencieve, it's clear he knows how the detach the piece of soul from the boy and see it to be destroyed."

"Got quite a lot on your plate." Her tone of voice made it clear she approved.

Delton smiled as he left the bathroom and settled down for breakfast with his wife. "That's not all."

"What else is there to do?"

"Sirius Black. He was put away as they thought he was the secret keeper, I'll have to check the records and see what's up there but something is definitely not right there. According to the memories, it had been Peter Pettigrew."

"I remember him," Ethel said. "First of the Blacks to become a Gryffindor, hell was raised."

"He was a good kid. Ready to get into the Auror programme too, so there is something fishy for sure."

"What about the child and Dumbledore?"

"Nothing there to do for me right now, just.." He sighed deeply. "Keep your fingers crossed. If Rodolphus memories are approved, the ball with roll to get the both of them and if not, there is nothing I can do whether or not I know the truth because I have nothing to back my word up."

"How about you question Snape?"

Delton smiled brightly and promptly pulled his wife close for a kiss. "Brilliant! Yes!"

With that, they finished breakfast and Delton ran out of the door, to work and set his finding in motion.