Surprises and Summer Holiday
"I know you!" Susan pointed at the man, "You're Arthur Weasley"
"Naturally… People often think that I am a Muggle loving fool, but I am one of the greatest of the Dark Lord's followers. For decades, I have played the old fool at his own tricks and told my true Master everything. It was me who told him about Sirius not being the secret keeper, me who told him about Pettigrew… It was I who helped to betray the Potters. Soon, I will help bring my Master back and help him on his mission of glory" Arthur Weasley looked almost manical. "For years I have done my best to help get Anti Muggle laws passed by helping Lucius Malfoy defeat my bigger ones. Soon, with this stone, I will restore my Master to life and take my place in history as one of the greatest"
"I think not…" the trio said together as they brought their wands up to bear in a united motion.
"What about Hermione?" Harry asked. "Why did you kidnap her and do this to her?"
"The Mudblood is smart for one of her kind – I needed her to get me through the traps set by Dumbledore and then…" Weasley shrugged, "She was of no further use to me" and a terrible rage filled the trio as they used what spells they knew in an all out attack on the Department Head.
#
The girl had been confused, she knew that some time had passed whilst she had been 'asleep', but could not tell how much had actually been and gone. There was only one place for her to go, so she put out her hand for help to get to Hogwarts.
#
"Are you alright, Albus?" Madam Bones was concerned that the older wizard had stumbled as they hurried down corridors.
"Yes, Amelia… I just felt a power that I had never felt for some time"
"Is it bad?"
"No… Really rather the reverse"
#
"We've got to try and disarm him at least" Harry said as he peeked from behind a column.
"We've tried that, but he keeps batting our spells out of the way" Susan said.
"What if one of us moved somewhere else and distracted him?" Hannah suggested.
"That might work, but we have to be near to Hermione if we have a chance of saving her" Harry pointed out to where Hermione still lay in her own blood.
"We have to do something!" Susan let off a volley of stunners which made Mr Weasley shield from them.
"Wait… Whats that fetching spell called?" Harry had a sudden brainwave.
"You mean Accio?" Susan blinked.
"That's a spell they teach in the Fifth Year" Hannah said and yelped from stonework exploding near her.
"I know, but remember over the holidays when we tried that spell holding hands?" Harry reminded them when they had tried some Second Year spells for fun by putting their magic together.
"I get you" Susan replied. They looked at each other, nodded as seriously as preteens could and then put their hands and wands together before getting to their feet and crying out.
"ACCIO WEASLEY WAND!" and, to their surprise, the wand came out of Mr Weasley's hand and landed at their feet. With lightning speed, and before another word could be said, Harry raised his foot and stamped hard to snap the wand. This infuriated the older wizard who charged at the boy and punched him so hard both of his feet left the ground and he went flying into a pillar with a nasty crunch to the head. Hannah and Susan tried every jinx in their memory to stop him, but their power was weak after such a powerful spell for their age.
#
"Are you alright, Amelia?" Madam Bones looked at Dumbledore and nodded weakly.
"I felt a flare of pain and magic before nothing – even the monitor has stopped"
"Amelia, if I have to blow up this room to get to my pupils, I will do so" Dumbledore knew what the implications of the monitor going silent meant. "I just wish Severus had left notes about a way to get through this"
"Professor, this is magical fire?" Shaklebolt asked.
"Yes"
"So its immune to being put out by water?"
"Sadly so"
"So what if we just starved the room of oxygen?" the Auror asked.
"Mr Shaklebolt, why were you never this good at lessons?" Dumbledore looked at the Auror with a frown.
"Too busy dealing with girls"
"Ah…" Dumbledore suddenly chuckled loudly, "As a gay man that is something that I will never have to deal with" and they all put bubbles over their heads before switching the oxygen in the room with a vacuum. The fire raged up for a moment before dying into non existence and they hurried forward to go into the last room.
#
"RELEASE THAT CHILD AT ONCE!" thundered Dumbledore. Arthur Weasley looked up from where he had been choking Harry to death, trying to crush his windpipe whilst kicking him in the ribs, and he just laughed.
"You are too late – the boy is already dead"
"Why, Arthur…? Why are you doing this?" Amelia had her wand pointing right between his eyes.
"Because my Master demanded it" he replied. "After the fight in Hastings, I was convinced I was fighting for the wrong side. I joined the Dark Lord and spied on all the meetings and passed information to him. All this time, I have been lying low as the stupid Muggle loving idiot in the Ministry – none of you even remotely thought of me. Now, though" he added, "I've killed the remaining thing standing in the way of my Master returning from a spirit. And, as a bonus, I killed a Mudblood too"
"You… You… You monster" a new voice hissed. Dumbledore went as pale as anything when he saw his dead sister materialise in front of them all. "You took an innocent life, have almost killed another – you deserve to die"
"Ariana?"
"Albus" the blonde haired woman looked her brother. "You have grown old"
"A lot of time has passed – almost a hundred years"
"Then you were never able to find out a way to cure me of the outbursts?"
"No"
"Excuse me, but I have work to be doing"
"HOLD!" both of the Dumbledore siblings said at the same time – their combined power rooting Arthur Weasley to the spot.
"Albus, my time here is short – your spell only partly worked and time is rapidly catching up with me. I can do one of them, but I will need your help to do the other"
"I understand" Dumbledore seemed at peace.
"What's going on, Auntie?" Susan asked.
"I don't know" she replied.
"My powers have slowly been weakening. Both as the result of poor health from my kidnapping and by a cocktail of poisons that somebody has been feeding me over the last few months" Dumbledore said carefully. "Ariana, my dear sister, let us do this last miracle and then go to our next great adventure"
"We must do it quickly – I can feel time catching up on me fast"
"Then let us do it" Dumbledore, after making his decision, seemed much happier about dying. Hannah and Susan clung to Harry as they sobbed over him and Hermione. "Madam Bones, as the most senior person here, I'd like you to go to my office after my death and read the parchment in the purple envelope. In it contains all the information you need to prosecute Death Eaters for their crimes as well as those members of the Ministry who have been either sympathetic to their aims or taken bribes to look the other way for a while now. There is also something else, in order to bring Harry to full health and return Miss Granger to life, a life must be taken. My sister and I have decided that we will take that of Arthur Weasley – just tell his family he died bravely otherwise that would destroy their lives" he turned to look at the two girls. "What I have done to Mr Potter was, I believed, for the greater good of all – I now see how wrong that was. Please apologise to him on my behalf and inform him that I have made sure certain papers are sent to him upon my death" and he sighed before looking at his sister. "I suppose I must apologise for what I have done to you as well… Perhaps I could have just given you the rest you richly deserved, but I kept you buried in stasis for decades" Dumbledore shook his head, "Now… Let's get this started"
"Brother… There is nothing to forgive you for – you did what you thought was best. Now, though, we can be together once again" and, with a careful coming together of hands, the two siblings started to glow before fading into nothingness. Electric blue sparks crackled over Arthur Weasley's body as he almost seemed to vibrate on the spot and magic tingled in the air as those awake and alive could feel things move in mysterious ways.
"Please… No…" were the Department Head's final words as he simply dropped to the floor like a puppet that had its strings cut – settling into a heap.
"Wha… What happened?" Harry's eyes shot open and he barely managed to croak the words out.
"You almost died" Hannah sobbed.
"But you got better again" Susan added tearfully.
"What… About… Hermione…?"
"She is alive, Harry, but we have to take her and yourself to the Hospital Wing at once" Madam Bones was casting diagnostic spells over Hermione Granger's still form.
"Ma'am, I'm not entirely sure how we are supposed to get back out again" Shaklebolt said.
"Damn…" Susan's Aunt had forgotten about that.
"Tilly!" Susan called and an elf appeared after a few moments. "Tilly, take Harry and Hermione to the Hospital Wing. Then, I want you to come back for us and then my Aunt"
"What about me?" asked Shaklebolt with a fake frown.
"I need you to investigate everything that happened here" Madam Bones said. "Use everything in the DMLE if needs be – I need to know what happened" and she stared at the spot that the Dumbledore siblings had been in. "Somebody should tell his brother" she added with a sigh.
# # # # #
Minerva McGonagall, the newly installed Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry knew the moment that Albus Dumbledore had passed on – the wards controlling the school passed to her. She'd been in the middle of playing a game of cards with Hagrid when the magical force of so much power had caused her to fall out of her chair. As the hours passed on, she felt a thought enter her mind that somebody was in Dumbledore's office – her office, she guessed now.
"I didn't expect you to be here" she said to the slightly unkempt figure standing and looking around.
"Aye… But he was my brother and, for all his sins, he tried to be a good man" Aberforth Dumbledore shook his head. "I spoke to Amelia Bones – said my sister came back from the dead to get my brother"
"I don't understand it, but it seems Albus kept your sister under some sort of stasis field in a cavern under the ground that he'd kept her in all these years. According to what he left behind, Albus did it because he was trying to find a way to cure your sister of what was wrong with her" McGonagall looked at Aberforth with sympathetic eyes. "I know what she truly was, but not a word will leave my lips"
"Thank you, Minerva… I just wonder what I am to do with all his things" Aberforth looked at McGonagall. "I'm going to deal with his bedroom – you take what you want as a memento and then anything you think would be useful to the school" and, with that, the man walked into the back area of the office. McGonagall watched him go with a heavy heart – when Aberforth died, the House of Dumbledore would cease to exist unless some distant heir could be found…
#
Harry and Hermione stayed in the Hospital Wing until the following day for safety before being allowed to Portkey to London. Hermione met her parents who had arrived early for their daughter whilst Harry had business with the Goblins. News of what happened at the Mirror of Erised chamber was a closely guarded secret, but a story was concocted to explain Arthur Weasley's death to spare his family from repercussions. Albus Dumbledore was due to have a memorial service in a few days, there being no body to bury, which had Fudge and most of the Ministry in a minor panic over what to do with the arrangements.
All of this, however, did not worry Harry as he entered Gringotts with Madam Bones, Susan and Hannah. The young Lord needed to know exactly what was taken from him by the Ministry so he could sue for its return to his family line, whilst Harry just wanted the house it had been Hannah that pointed out there could have been money and family jewels also.
"Good Evening, Mr Potter" Ragnock said. "How can I help you this day?"
"You once said that your records go back to the founding of the bank… So, does that mean you know what was taken from me by the last Ministry group?" Harry asked, coughing slightly from his still tender throat.
"Yes – they would have filed a complete report with us" Ragnock sent a runner to the archives to fetch the ledger for that time period. When he returned, the group went over the records and discovered quite a few things.
"If I am reading this correctly, the Ministry of the time made no attempt to pay compensation for the loss of my family home" Harry said.
"No… It seems they took it without even an offer of compensation. Of course, Lord Potter, you were just a baby at the time" Ragnock chuckled.
"Sir, what was the date of the taking?" Hannah asked.
"November the 4th 1991"
"And the war was declared over two days before that" Susan noted. "So not only did the Ministry take Harry's house, they outright lied when they did so"
"Interesting point, Mrs Potter" the Goblin said. "Lord Potter, we can provide you with as much evidence as possible, but the actual case must be filed by yourself. As Gringotts, to its shame, has been complicit in this crime, we will not charge you for this and any other services related"
"Does it say which member of the Ministry signed off on the plan?" Susan asked.
"Yes" Ragnock looked it up in the ledger. "According to this, it was authorised on behalf of the Ministry by a Dirk Prewett"
"Prewett?" Harry blinked.
"According to what he said at the time, it would be turned into a memorial to show the sacrifice that your family made. A lot of people objected because their families had been wiped out, so it was decided to just allow the house to stay as it was and be overgrown by nature"
"Can it be repaired?" asked Harry.
"I do not know – nobody has visited to perform minimum repairs in at least five years. If I may be so bold, it might be a good idea for one of our building teams to go and perform a full inspection on it before starting your case" Ragnock sat back in his chair and sighed. "My Lord, it is becoming clear to me that the Ministry, at least that Ministry in place at the time of these events, were fully engaged on taking what they wanted. A memory has come to the forefront of my mind of an occasion where I had to visit your father whilst he was in hiding with your mother and yourself. Although I could not read it, I was shown your family Grimore – when your parents died, it should have automatically come to the vaults here… The fact it did not might indicate that the Ministry took it and still holds it to this day."
"Ragnock, I think we're going to need that full accounting done now" Susan growled. She knew exactly how powerful a family Grimore could be in the wrong hands – to have the Ministry hold it essentially hostage would confirm quite a few things to the young girl.
"That might be a good idea" Harry said, trying to wrap all the information into manageable thoughts.
"I will have to use every spare Goblin we have" Ragnock said, "But I will have a visual search made of all your vaults and compared to the last listing made. Now, as for the filing of the paperwork, this is what you will have to do…"
#
"Next" called out the bored sounding witch. The trio walked forward and presented their paperwork which the witch barely gave a look to. "I do not deal with children"
"I might be a child, but I am also Lord Potter. Can I deal with you or shall I show my displeasure with your supervisor?"
"Follow me" the witch said and so they did.
"I didn't realise you could talk like that" Hannah said.
"I don't" Harry shrugged, "I was pretending to be Susan's Aunt"
"Ah"
"Oi!"
#
"Let me get this straight" the slightly balding wizard remarked, "You want to sue the Ministry and have them turn over a war memorial to you?"
"And return or replace everything that was inside it" Harry confirmed. Julius Limbani sighed, rubbed his chin and sighed once again – it didn't help.
"Lord Potter, it is not so much a matter of just giving it back to you… The property at Godric's Hollow is a memorial to people who died in the war"
"I know what it is…" hissed Harry – a few bits of magical energy crackling around him.
"Even if we did, there is no way that we could account for all the money and property taken from the place. If we did, to repay it along with compensation would bankrupt the Ministry" Limbani replied.
"I've not been in the magical world that long" Harry said slowly, "But I know what theft is… The Ministry stole from my family when it was down, they stole my house and money – I want it back otherwise I will tap this parchment and start the case against the Ministry"
"I'm sorry"
"So am I" Harry said and reached out to tap the parchment with his wand.
"Wait…! What if we were to launch an investigation into what happened at the time and pay some form of compensation?" Limbani offered.
"How much?"
"Fifty to sixty thousand Galleons"
"A moment" Harry said and gathered Hannah and Susan into a hug to whisper. They actually whispered for several minutes before breaking apart. "No" and Harry tapped his wand on the parchment. "Give me back what is rightfully mine, or I will go forward with this"
"Do you know what you are even doing?" Limbani's skin flushed with a mixture of shock and mounting terror.
"No… However, I've got Hannah and Susan to help me" Harry rose and smiled nastily, "Good day" and he walked out with the girls. As they started leaving, Harry looked at Susan. "Definitely pretending to be your Aunt!"
# # # # #
In the following two weeks, the Ministry's legal department tried every trick they knew to get Harry to drop his case against them but he refused to do so. The Goblins, with complete glee, searched his vaults and visually accounted for every item that was supposed to be in his vaults and found that he was short by over a million Galleons and that several items were missing. Harry wasn't too bothered about the items so much as the huge amount of money that had simply vanished, but was calmed in his anger when it was explained that it was not at all uncommon for even larger sums to go missing. As Gringotts explained, this could be due to any number of reasons such as records not being filed correctly, legal disputes that were ongoing or money transfers going on hold due to the proper checks being made. Some time later, Harry and the girls were relaxing by the pool at Hannah's house when an Owl came fluttering down and landed on the table bearing an important looking letter. Harry took it, read the contents and suddenly shot up in surprise.
"What? What is it?" Susan asked.
"The court case is due to start in two hours" Harry said as the trio gathered their things and rushed to their rooms to get ready and change.
"This is so wrong" mumbled Hannah as she struggled to get into her Goblin made suit.
"Blame the Government" Harry muttered.
"You can't blame my Auntie" Susan complained.
"You blamed her the other day for breaking your bedroom door" Hannah pointed out.
"That's different"
"How?"
"It just…is?" she finished weakly.
"We're going to need to visit the Goblins and see if they know about this" Harry said as he did his shoes up.
"I doubt it" Susan said. "After all, they didn't even know until they dug really deep that the paperwork for the items, money and property that had been taken by the Ministry was all false"
"That is something we will have to find out for certain" Harry said, slipping his wand into a wrist holster that Madam Bones had given him as a gift. They met up outside their rooms before leaving a message on the kitchen table and going outside to call the Knight Bus.
#
"There was no news delivered to us of this case" Ragnock said, "And certainly nothing to say it was being held today"
"The only way that could be is if the case was classified as a state secret" Susan said, remembering something that she was told by her Aunt years ago.
"Indeed, Mrs Potter" Ragnock teased. He knew that Susan and Hannah preferred to be called by their non married names until such time as they had a real wedding. "Whoever is behind this is both clever and sneaky – there would be no record of the hearing except a note that the house and everything else was now the legal property of the Ministry"
"Who could order such a secret hearing?" asked Harry.
"The Minister, Susan's Aunt and the head of the Wizengamot" Hannah said.
"Well we can rule Auntie out" Susan said, "She's at a meeting of the DMLE heads around the world in Switzerland"
"Then we shall have to do it ourselves" Ragnock said.
"We?"
"I have not been outside the walls of this bank in such a very long time. My Goblin Healers say that my end is drawing near and I would very much like to see the sun once again" and the Goblin shook his head. "One thing that works in your favour, Lord Potter, is that anybody may help or represent you in your case – they will never expect the head of Gringotts himself to aid you… Should give them quite the turn"
"Maybe somebody can help you that isn't a Goblin" Harry suggested.
"Maybe" Ragnock said. "But I doubt it very much indeed… Anyway, now we must go back to business and gather documentation"
# # # # #
"This hearing is started" the Panel Head said. "The Ministry is to present its case as to why the taking of private property and residences is legal"
"Your Honours" Julius Limbani stood up and addressed the panel, "The end of the last war was an occasion of great sacrifice for all of us. Once things had been settled down, it was decided that the site of the Dark Lord's final defeat should be the location of the national mounument and so the Ministry took the Potter residence under emergency laws then in place"
"Mister Ragnock?"
"Members of this Panel, what this man has said is both truth and lie… Whilst it is true that the residence of the Potters was the site of the Dark Lord's final battle, we contest that place was taken against the laws and customs of you Humans and without compensation" Ragnock pulled out a copy of the orders from his briefcase. "These are the orders from the Office of the Minister, Bagnold was the one in place at the time, and they state the residence is to be taken by an Auror detachment and turned into a war grave and area of rememberence. However, you will note the date as being four days AFTER the declared end of the war" he tapped a long finger at the copies which flew to those concerned. "Whilst you read that, I want to move on to the equally serious charge of monetary and property theft. Money was taken from the Potter vaults to pay for the construction of new houses, war repairs and wage increases – despite the fact that the Ministry had seized those of convicted war criminals as recompense"
"We did it because we thought the money would be repaid before Lord Potter would realise it was missing" Limbani remarked.
"Ah, so you admit it then…?" Ragnock chuckled, "But to move on, Sir, I now turn to the fact that the Potter residence was plundered and the family secrets taken by the Unspeakables to be studied. This included the family Grimore as well as furniture and jewels"
"We needed them to finance the country after the end of the war" Limbani protested.
"At the cost of a child's inheritance? You disgust me" Ragnock looked at the Panel. "If you do not agree to the wishes of my client, I will order my men to go to war" and he showed off his sword.
"You are not allowed weapons in the Ministry, Master Goblin" Limbani said.
"This? Oh, this is my ceremonial pen… It uses blood instead of ink"
"Well don't sign any cheques while you are here" the Panel Head paled.
"No need to worry – the inkwell is empty" Ragnock roared with laughter. The trio, realising it was a Goblin joke, decided to roar in laughter along with Ragnock.
"Master Goblin, I presume you have more evidence of this wrong doing?" the Panel Head said, rubbing the bridge of his nose with a sigh.
"Oh yes… I have evidence to put several key Ministry officials behind bars for many years, evidence that this went to the highest levels of government… How much do you want?"
"I think we will want as much as you can give us. On the matter before us, I think we can all agree that the Ministry's position is invalid and therefore it must repay all the stolen monies and items to Lord Potter with a fine not exceeding ten percent of the total value"
"I want an apology" Harry suddenly blurted out.
"We have already apologised"
"Yeah, but I want it in writing"
# # # # #
"Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo" Hannah drew out the word, "What do we do now?"
"We've got an entire afternoon to kill" Susan shrugged as she dug into her ice cream.
"You know, the carts at the bank look awesome – they remind me of a rollercoaster" Harry remarked. "I've never been on them before, but they always sounded fun"
"You've never been on one before?" Hannah and Susan both looked at him with wide eyes before hurrying to finish their ice creams and then grabbing his hand to pull him towards the bank.
#
"… and this is your final stop, Minister" a Goblin said as Fudge looked at a list in his hand. He was about to say something when he heard the loud screams of three children coming towards them. He and the Goblin looked up to see a bank cart at full speed whistling past them containing Harry, Hannah and Susan with big grins and their hands in the air.
"What was that…?" asked Fudge.
"I think it was the Potter family taking one of our carts for a joy ride" the Goblin replied.
"Oh oh!" the trio of cries came from down a tunnel. The cart suddenly passed them by in the other direction with a very angry looking Goblin blacksmith chasing after them.
"Come back you little demons"
"What happened, Master Blacksmith?"
"They ran over my bloody toe"
"Ah" Fudge sighed and reached into his pocket for a hip flask and took a swig of its contents. "I don't get paid enough for this"
#
Weeks passed and the trio were spending one last afternoon of freedom in the library at Susan's just reading books and spending some quiet time together. Tomorrow, they would be embarking on the Hogwarts Express for the start of their Second Year.
"Do you think that we will have the same this year that we did last year?" Susan asked quietly.
"Well it might be quieter" Hannah shrugged, "But we'll still have loads of fun"
"What about you, Harry?"
"Oh, I think we're only just getting started"
A/N:
Okay, the long awaited next chapter – hope you all like it and the surprise twist at the start!
The next chapter will skip to the Fourth Year because that is when things really start to kick off for the trio with the Tri Wizard and all of that.
Also, to clarify something – although technically married, Hannah still lives with her parents because the trio don't really consider themselves married until they have a real wedding
Regards
Pixel and Stephanie Forever
