Authors Note: Here's the next chapter, sorry I'm late with the update, it was a long couple of days at work and I had a bit of difficulty writing this chapter. Does anyone else have those days when they get home from work and don't want to do anything? Anyways, please read and review.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Wizarding World or Harry Potter, those rights belong to J.K. Rowling
Chapter 20
Once the Wizengamont is back from the lunch break, Cyrus asks the aurors to bring in Bellatrix Lestrange for her trial, hoping that they can also use veritaserum on her as well. While everyone else was at lunch, Cyrus quietly asked Amelia to meet him in an office just off the courtroom, usually used to hold witnesses. Once Amelia and Cyrus are in the office, Cyrus quickly sets up numerous privacy wards so he can talk to Amelia.
"Alright Amelia, tell me the truth. Why can't we throw Lucius through the veil right now?"
"Do you really want to know Cyrus?"
"Yes, what aren't you telling me?"
"That there's more to the story than what you've heard during the trials, what I know is what I've been told by Minerva and the goblins."
"Could you maybe get to the point Amelia? I would like to eat lunch before we continue with the trials."
"With how insane Bellatrix is, I'm afraid of you losing your lunch during her trial, but I'll get to the point. The reason I need Lucius alive for now is so that I can get a vial of his blood to retrieve the artifact he's hiding in his manor."
"What is he hiding in his manor?"
"A horcrux. One of several that he's made."
Cyrus pales hearing this. "Is that why he looked so inhumane? How many of those abominations did he make?"
"The goblins have estimated that he has created 7 of them."
"So, what does Lucius have to do with the horcruxes?" Cyrus asks.
"It's my belief that Lord Voldemort entrusted some of his followers to keep his horcruxes safe for him, if he asked members in his inner circle to safeguard them for him, then I'd bet my salary Lucius has one and doesn't know it."
Cyrus pales at this statement, "I think I've lost my appetite, and how do you know what the goblins have found out?"
"I trust them, and they trust me, I was in a meeting with them and Minerva McGonagall about her son Hendrick and the topic came up because the goblins had to do a cleansing ritual on him." Amelia explains while looking at her watch, noticing there's only 15 minutes until the break is over. "Mary," with that, Amelia's house elf pops into the chamber. "Can you bring us a couple of sandwiches and bottles of water?"
"Mary can do that; I'll be right back." With that, Mary pops out to get them some lunch. Once Cyrus and Amelia are eating the sandwiches, Cyrus asks, "How are you staying so calm questioning these Death Eaters?"
"The only reason I'm able to keep my composure is because I know we are able to get these people where they belong, either in prison or death. If Albus had his way, they would all walk free because he thought everyone deserves a second chance."
"Well, I'm glad that Albus is behind bars with the goblins, have you heard anything as to how he's doing there?"
"Not recently, once the trials are over today, I'll make an appointment with the goblins to find out what they've learned."
"Sounds good, let me know if anything interesting comes out of it, now, let's go put a few more Death Eaters behind bars." With that, Cyrus undoes his privacy spells, and follows Amelia out of the chamber to get back to his Chief Warlock seat, looking forward to a glass of whiskey when the day is done.
Once everyone is back from their lunch break and back in their seats, Cyrus bangs his gavel and orders the Aurors to lock the doors, signalling that court is now back in session. "Aurors, please bring Bellatrix Lestrange in please." With that, the aurors bring a cackling Bellatrix, looking more like someone who has been shocked with an electric chair than a person who's been in a holding cell for a week. Once Bellatrix is securely chained into the chair, Cyrus gives Amelia the go ahead to start questioning Bellatrix.
Amelia nods back to Cyrus and then turns towards Bellatrix, wondering if she's crazy enough to answer truthfully without veritaserum. 'Well, lets give this a shot without veritaserum.' Amelia thinks as she tries to figure out where to start the questioning with her. "Mrs. Lestrange, you are being charged with several accounts of torture, murder, and treason for voluntarily becoming a Death Eater, how do you plead?"
"Guilty, I'm guilty of all of it." Bellatrix replies, laughing and creepily smiling while she says this.
"Why did you become a Death Eater?" Amelia asks, now knowing that Bellatrix is crazy enough to answer truthfully without a potion in her system.
"I fell in love with the Dark Lord while we were in school, sure I'm a few years younger than him, but you can't help who you fall in love with."
"What about your husband?" Amelia asks, curious as to where Bellatrix is going with this.
"It was an arranged marriage, I talked to my husband and he's totally fine with me having an affair with the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord is so much more powerful than my pitiful husband, Rolphy couldn't even stand being under the Dark Lord's Cruciatus curse for more than 30 seconds, kept screaming like a little girl."
"How many times did Voldemort put you under the Cruciatus curse?"
"More than a dozen times, I never screamed, my Aunt Walburga made sure I had a tolerance to the curse built up. I loved it when the Dark Lord used it on me during our evening trysts."
Amelia almost puked when she heard this, wondering if Sirius knew how horrible his mother truly is, and if maybe they can arrest her and charge her with child abuse. "Back to the matter at hand, did Voldemort ever give you or your husband something to keep safe?"
"Yes, he gave me Helga Hufflepuff's cup." The Wizengamont all gasp when they hear that one of the worst dark lords in history has stolen priceless artifacts related to the Founders of Hogwarts.
"Did he give anything else to any other Death Eaters?" Amelia asked, hoping for some more information to send to the goblins when this is all over.
"Just an old diary to Lucius, my dear brother-in-law."
"Can you give us any names of other Death Eaters?"
"Surely my dear brother-in-law Lucius gave you a bunch of names already, and I know what he knows."
"Is your sister Narcissa a Death Eater?"
"No, she's more focused on her son than keeping us purebloods at the top of the food chain. I tried to talk her into the Dark Lord's plan, but she wouldn't listen to me."
Thank heavens for small mercies, Amelia thinks, "Where is Helga Hufflepuff's cup?"
"Ha-ha, nice try Amy, I'm not going to say anything about that except for it's in one of the safest places in the world." Bellatrix says, laughing the entire time.
"Thank you, Bellatrix. Members of the Wizengamont, I find Bellatrix guilty of all charges against her, we cannot allow a person this dangerous to go free. I hereby push for the Veil of Death for Bellatrix Lestrange. Can anyone second the motion?" Shortly after Cyrus says this, over three quarters of the Wizengamont raise their wands in agreement. "Sentence approved, Bellatrix Lestrange, you will be sent through the Veil of Death in two days time. Your vault at Gringotts will be surrendered to the Head of your house, in this case, Lord Black will be able to access your vault and take anything and everything out of it. Aurors, take Mrs. Lestrange to our maximum-security holding cells until her execution." With that, the aurors handcuff Bellatrix and drag her out of the courtroom. While everyone waits for the aurors to bring Bellatrix's husband in for his trial, Amelia slips off to the side room she talked to Cyrus in earlier that day to send a letter to the goblins about a possible lead on a Horcrux located in Bellatrix's vault.
Meanwhile, at Play Castle
While all the Death Eaters are getting veritaserum shoved down their throats, Molly and Minerva have been making steady headway getting the daycare ready to open by the end of the month. It would go quicker if the young Weasleys and Harry didn't decide to try and help by painting the floors along with the walls, but kids will be kids.
"Minerva, as much as this was my idea, and the goblins suggested that we open the daycare to muggles, how do we stop the parents of the muggle children from seeing accidental magic from the kids, or the magicals doing magic in front of the muggles? I really don't want to have to use any magic on anyone." Molly asks while she sets the kids up with paper to paint on instead of the floor.
"I see your issue Molly, I will talk to the goblins and see if there are any wards we can use around or in the daycare to help shield the use of magic around muggles, until then, since this is an old school, why don't we use two classrooms? There are washrooms on each end of the school, so why don't we use this classroom for one set of children, and another classroom on the other side of the school for the other? Just until we can figure out how to get all the kinks out of our system. Speaking of which, I've had several applications sent to me from both the muggle and magical world for positions here, when should we start interviewing people?"
"Probably sometime next week, as long as someone can keep an eye on all of these troublemakers." Molly replies, while running towards Fred and George to stop them from dumping a can of paint on Ron, Ginny, and Harry. "Do you think Filius would be able to keep an eye on all of them?"
"I think it would take Filius and Augusta to keep these little rascals in line, along with a new pet of mine." Minerva replies.
"When did you get a new pet?"
"Shortly after I adopted Harry, Fawkes showed up at my place and bonded with me. Fawkes told me in his own way that Albus had become too dark, and secretly always wanted to bond with me, Albus' micromanaging about Harry's life and his office outbursts were the final straw for Fawkes." Minerva explained.
"So not only do you have a toddler to look after, but you also have a flaming bird in your house? And I thought having 7 kids was a handful." Molly says.
"Luckily Fawkes doesn't flash in and out of every room, he prefers to fly after Harry's crib when he decides he wants to fly around his room. Which as much as it scares me that Harry turns his crib into a flying carpet on a daily basis, knowing that Fawkes keeps an eye on him along with Remus takes a small load off my mind." Minerva explains.
"Well, I think between Remus, Filius, Augusta and Fawkes, the kids will be in good hands. Let's ask the applicants to come in next week Saturday for some interviews, that will give us enough time to get both rooms fixed up and ourselves ready for just about anything." Molly says once she has finally gotten the paint away from the twins and gave them pencil crayons instead of a liquid projectile. "Now, lets try to finish painting this mural before the kids decide the floor needs to be more colourful again." With that, Minerva and Molly continue on their renovations.
Later that afternoon, while the kids are taking a nap and Molly and Minerva are putting the final touches on the first room, Doc quietly pops into the room. "Minnie, Doc has an important letter for you from Gringotts."
"Thank you, Doc, hmm that's odd, I don't have any appointments with them, what do they want?" Minerva says as she takes the letter and unseals it.
"Dear Minerva,
We do not have any appointments with you, but I am writing to inform you that I just received a letter from Ms. Amelia Bones, who was questioning Death Eaters today at the Wizengamont. Because of this, we would like you to come to Gringotts tonight at 7:00pm to fill you in on the headway we have made regarding Tom Riddle. I hope to see you then.
Sincerely,
Rockgrinder
Once Minerva finishes reading the letter, she looks at the clock and notices its only 4:00. She quickly writes a confirmation reply to Rockgrinder and sends it via Doc. Once he has left, Minerva looks to Molly, "Well, we should wake the children up and get them all home for supper. Would you mind looking after Harry while I'm at Gringotts? If it's an issue I can take him with me."
"I would be glad to look after Harry, if you want, I'll keep him for the night and the kids can have a sleepover." Molly replies.
"That would be great!" Minerva exclaims. "I haven't had a night to myself since I adopted Harry, as much as I love my son, all mothers need a night off now and then."
"Then its settled. I will take Harry for the night, get one of your house elves to pack an overnight bag for him and I will superglue a cot or a playpen to the floor to try and keep him grounded." Molly says.
"Good luck with that, I have used industrial bolts to keep his crib on the floor, his magic just takes the wood under his crib with him."
"This may be his way of saying he's ready for a big kid's bed. Normally, once a child is over the age of one, they will find ways to get out of their crib, no matter what. This is their way of saying that they're not a little kid anymore." Molly explains. "Fred and George kept apparating into Percy's room when they were Harry's age, and once I got them both into their own beds, it stopped."
"Thank you, Molly. Sometimes I feel like I know nothing on how to raise a child."
"That's how all first-time mothers feel. I had those feelings when Bill was born but having a husband or another adult around helps a lot. You have Remus, Filius, Augusta and me to help you, and hopefully Mr. Black. It takes a village to raise a child, and that's what you have. Now, lets get these kids up and back to the Burrow for their first sleepover." With that, Minerva and Molly clean up the supplies that they were using to renovate the school and wake up the kids to get them ready for a sleepover.
7:00pm, at Gringotts.
Once Minerva gets to Gringotts after having a wonderful supper at the Burrow and leaving her son there, she heads to Rockgrinder's office.
"Thank you for coming on such short notice Minerva." Rockgrinder greets once she gets comfortable. "First, I will give you some good news, Sirius has been declared innocent, taken up the mantle of Lord Black since his father's unwell and is free to take his place as Harry's godfather."
"That's wonderful, I always knew Sirius was a good person, a bit of a prankster, but he would never betray his friends. Have you heard anything about Pettigrew?" Minerva asks.
"During the trial it came out that Pettigrew is a rat animagus, but his whereabouts is currently unknown."
"One step at a time, that's all we can do." Minerva says.
"That's true, anyways, Amelia was able to locate two of Tom's remaining horcruxes during the trials today."
"That's wonderful, where are they?"
"One is currently in Lucius Malfoy's home, warded by a blood lock in his office, we will get everything in order so we can legally obtain a vial of Lucius' blood to unlock the drawer its in. The other one, I am sorry to say, is here in Gringotts." Rockgrinder says.
"Where would someone hide one of those things here?"
"In their vault, Bellatrix Lestrange decided that it would be wonderful to hide one of his horcruxes in her vault."
"What was this horcrux?"
"It's Helga Hufflepuffs cup. We will send a letter to the new Lord Black to receive permission to remove this item from her vault and cleanse it."
"What about the one in Lucius' house?"
"Apparently, it's an old diary of Tom's, I would hazard a guess that he made it while he was still in school. Were there any deaths at Hogwarts in the past 60 years?"
"The only death was Myrtle Warren, are you saying that he killed her to create a horcrux, WHILE HE WAS IN HIS OWL YEAR?!" Minerva shrieks.
"The timeline matches, yes. Albus did say that Tom was an exceptional student and apparently Horace Slughorn gave him an all-access pass to the restricted section at the beginning of his 5th year under the pretense of wanting to study ahead and hopefully graduate early."
"The restricted section is restricted for a reason, I think I'm going to have a talk with Arthur about this, and maybe add a stipulation that any student under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult while in the restricted section. I would have a heart attack if a student was able to get their hands on a copy of Moste Potent Potions and attempt to brew a potion above their skill level."
"Knowledge is great power, but with great power, comes great responsibility. I would heavily suggest talking to him and the rest of the Hogwarts staff sooner over later." Rockgrinder says, agreeing with Minerva on this.
"I'll contact Arthur in the morning to call for an emergency staff meeting as soon as possible. I'll also have to get a hold of Molly and figure out when to pick up my son from his first sleepover. Did you learn anything else from the trials today?"
"Unfortunately, not, we were able to convict Roldophous Lestrange to the Veil, along with Bellatrix, and Mr. Lestrange's vault will become property of Gringotts. We will spread the money out between several investments, and also be donating a large portion of it to muggle orphanages. I think that if orphanages would have more funds, the children would be better cared for, and we may be able to decrease the risk of another psychopath coming out of a place like Tom came from." Rockgrinder explains with a sad smile on his face.
"Thank you very much Rockgrinder. Please keep me updated on any more breakthroughs on the horcrux hunt."
"I will, and hopefully these horcruxes will give us some hints as to where the other ones are." Rockgrinder says. With that, Minerva gathers her stuff and gets ready to head home and have a night in with Remus and Filius. She is looking forward to watching a movie that hasn't been made by the Walt Disney corporation and drinking something stronger than herbal tea.
End Authors Note: Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'm not sure when I will get the next chapter up, but I will hopefully get a new chapter up by the end of next week.