Chapter 13

Investigating

Exhaustion was something that Amelia was well accustomed to. Investigations sometimes spanned weeks and even months, and a lot of legwork went into them. One could not simply stop and rest, or one would miss out on some critical clue that would break the case wide open.

Time was of the essence in cases like this one, and it made things that much worse. Sleep was not something she was getting a lot of. She was handling interviews and investigation during the day, and her evenings were spent sorting through what she learned in order to decide what to do the next day.

She disliked relying on Pepper-Up potions, but needs must.

Since she had Bill's agreement, she started with Ronald Weasley, but failed to learn much there. Ronald was fairly dim, and was only involved because Albus promised to pay him handsomely when it was over. The kid was insanely jealous, and wanted everything Potter had — and had taken a bit of it too, mostly Galleons, whenever he thought he could get away with it.

It was amazing what you could learn with an open-ended questioning under Veritaserum. Bill was appalled, and given Potter's current absence, she left it in his hands instead of arresting the kid for theft. Amelia had bigger fish to fry.

From there, she moved on to Hermione Granger. Mr. Potter was a busy boy, it seemed: the elder Grangers had received a letter from him after his departure, just as she had. It was obviously intended to warn them that their daughter was headed down a dark path, and that British magical society was a very dark place.

He flatly recommended that they yank her from Hogwarts and get her out of the country so she would not be further corrupted.

As for Miss Granger, she herself was not aware of the letter, and likely would not be for a long time to come, if ever. To Amelia, the girl was a psychological horror, and even her own parents were shocked, as they hadn't known it. Her Veritaserum questioning was a treasure trove, and not in a good way.

She had never truly been Mr. Potter's friend. Albus had gotten to her less than a day after what she referred to as "the troll incident," and promised her the Head Girl position when the time came if she would help him.

And unlike Weasley, Granger was fully aware that what she and Albus were doing was highly illegal. Worse, she wasn't just an informer. Yes, she had spied on him for Albus. Unlike Weasley, she hadn't stolen from him, but instead had done far worse.

For one, she had interfered with his post owl on multiple occasions, using spells provided by Albus to prevent him from sending mail where and when he wanted. She then confiscated that mail, read it, and handed it over to Albus. Mr. Potter had to have known that, because he never sent anything that they would be concerned about.

She had directly interfered with his correspondence with Gringotts, though, and was aware that Albus was intercepting all of his Gringotts mail. That wasn't just illegal, it was a Treaty violation. The girl obviously had no clue what the goblins would do to her if they ever found out — and it wouldn't be pretty!

If that weren't enough already, she had also been responsible for hindering him in other ways when Albus couldn't. This ranged from spelling him with sleeping charms and the like when they didn't want him wandering around for whatever reason, to putting power-dampening and wit-dulling potions in his food on occasion. She had outright attacked the most famous person in their community, and she had done it repeatedly.

Also, she and Weasley together had done their damnedest to ensure that he had no contact with anyone that Albus didn't approve of — which, in the end, was anybody other than the two of them.

And she didn't think she'd done a damn thing wrong!

When questioned on that point, she insisted that Albus Dumbledore was the greatest wizard alive, the highest authority in the land, and the only one who could prevent Voldemort from conquering Britain. She refused to accept that Dumbledore also had to follow the law, just like anyone else. And that meant she felt that she, by extension, was also exempt.

Unfortunately for one Hermione Jean Granger, she was in for a terribly rude awakening.

It was easy to see that her parents were truly appalled; they did not approve. The Wizengamot was likely to throw the book at the girl if this went to trial, and then some; they would use the opportunity to toss her muggleborn bum through the veil if they thought they could get away with it, and with the furor gripping the country right now, they probably could. No matter how badly messed up the girl was, she wasn't quite deserving of that punishment.

Instead, at the request of her parents, she bound the girl's magic. It wasn't a full binding — any competent Healer could remove it — but it would prevent her from escaping what her parents now had in store for her. On Amelia's recommendation, they were going to move out of the country immediately; it was the only way to protect the girl.

And they were going to find her a Mind Healer wherever they ended up, because the girl was clearly not at all right in the head. Her attitude and views struck Amelia as deeply unnatural, and she suspected Albus' hand in that, but had no proof as yet.

That little episode had taken most of a day to get through, and Amelia had to shore up her Occlumency to block off the horror she felt over what was going on at that school. Albus had one hell of a lot to answer for on that score alone. And she had the evidence in the form of a certified legal recording of the questioning, though for the Grangers' sake she would prefer not to use it.

And she still wasn't done; her next stop was with Miss Weasley's minders.

Their parents were not exactly happy about her employing Veritaserum, but they had no choice in the matter. This was a missing persons case, involving an underage witch. She had a lot of latitude on such cases.

Neither one had any idea where Ginevra had gone, nor that she was even planning to leave in the first place. All they knew was that they hadn't seen her since the Third Task. They couldn't even give a clear description of the last time they saw her, other than that she was there watching the Task, but not when it was over.

That pointed toward Amelia's guess of Potter and Weasley working together, but she didn't reveal that.

It also came out that they were indeed working for Albus. They had been offered various perks around the school to ensure that she had no contact with others. Albus told them that she was potentially extremely dangerous, and that was why he selected older students to watch her and keep her isolated.

When asked why they thought that was acceptable, their only response had been along the lines of "He's Albus Dumbledore! If you can't trust Dumbledore, who can you trust?"

Amelia wanted to vomit.

They had no actual useful evidence, though. There was no indication of any connection with Potter. She had rarely even been out of their sight except after curfew while she was sleeping. And they had even placed an alert ward on her bed to ensure she didn't wander in the middle of the night.

Amelia felt she was missing something. Her instincts were increasingly telling her that the two disappearances were directly linked, but she could find not a single shred of evidence to support it. If she was right, then how had they managed it?

Not that it really mattered in the end, but she was deeply curious.

Perhaps the most interesting item from those interviews, however, was that they had not been able to inform Albus of the girl's absence, simply because he wasn't there to inform. He had instructed them to only report directly to him (probably because the rest of the staff would be appalled by what he was doing). And so he had completely missed it.

This, however, did not absolve Hogwarts in any way, shape, or form.

She now was entering the office of the Deputy Headmistress, who also happened to be the Head of Gryffindor House. She honestly wasn't looking forward to this, but there was little choice. There were questions, and they needed answers.

"Amelia," greeted Professor McGonagall calmly. They weren't friends per se, but they were normally friendly.

"It's Director Bones today, Minerva," she said quietly. "This is official business, I'm afraid."

One of Minerva's eyebrows went up, but she gestured her down and took a seat herself. The woman had always been the no-nonsense sort; even her office was austerely decorated. She was entirely focused on her career, at least so far as Amelia knew.

"And how can Hogwarts help the DMLE?" she asked simply.

Amelia took a moment to set up the dictaquill, which sent Minerva's eyebrows into the stratosphere. Not that she was likely to know that term, but that was neither here nor there. Amelia knew more about muggle science than most in their world.

She quickly dictated the header, and then turned back to the woman, fixing her with a serious gaze that was all business. And Minerva was easily perceptive enough to notice, if the way she lost just a bit of color was any indication.

"What do you know about the movements of Ginevra Molly Weasley, from the time period starting with the beginning of the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament, and ending with the arrival of the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross station?"

Minerva blinked hard.

"I assume she was with the other students," the woman frowned, "but I do not have any more specific information to offer."

Sadly, Amelia was not entirely surprised by this. Standards at Hogwarts had been slipping for years, and while Minerva was an excellent transfiguration teacher, and even a passable Deputy Headmistress, she was a terrible Head of House. It was partly because she was so unapproachable to her students, and partly because she was wearing far too many hats.

"Can you provide any confirmation of Miss Weasley's presence at the school after the Third Task ended?" she asked.

Minerva's eyes widened. "I would have to ask around," she frowned. "I do not have any personal recollection. Things were rather chaotic with Mr. Potter's abduction as I'm sure you recall."

Amelia closed her eyes in pain at what she was going to have to do. She was well aware of both the requirements of the school charter, and the legal requirements imposed by the Ministry, and it was quickly becoming clear that it had all been ignored. And it wasn't something minor, either, no pun intended.

On impulse, she reached out and stopped the quill; she didn't want this on the record just yet.

"Have you lost the damn plot, Minerva?" she asked flatly.

Minerva blinked bemusedly back at her. "Of course not," she said in affront. "Things were very hectic, Amelia, you know that. You were here."

"Yes, I was here," countered Amelia grimly. "And myself and a number of other people were dealing with what happened to Mr. Potter. Who in bloody hell was looking after the rest of the children? Because I would have expected it to be you, and it clearly wasn't."

"There were a massive number of children and guests here," defended Minerva. "Getting them herded back to the castle alone was a terrible challenge!"

Amelia shook her head; the woman was missing the point entirely. "That excuse might fly for the immediate moment in time Minerva, but what about the next day, or the day after that?"

"There was no reason to believe anything additional was amiss," Minerva said waspishly. "Now what is this about?"

Amelia stared at her for a long moment, and began to wonder if the woman even actually knew the requirements of her Head of House role. It was becoming increasingly clear that either she didn't, or she genuinely didn't care. That was extremely disturbing.

She was suddenly very thankful that her niece was under the auspices of Pomona Sprout, who took her responsibilities much more seriously.

"I need to see your headcount sheets," she said after a moment.

The confusion on Minerva's face was not a good sign. "My what?" she frowned. "I don't know what you're referring to."

Amelia bent her head and sighed heavily. Minerva was going to end up in serious trouble for this, and not even because of the immediate issue. She was neglecting her duties so severely that there would be no choice but to dismiss her from the post!

"Your headcount sheets?" she finally said, her voice going quiet. "The ones you're supposed to be filling out nightly, showing that the students in your House are all accounted for?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," frowned Minerva. "I've never had such a duty."

Amelia just stared at her. "For Merlin's sake, Minerva!" she burst. "Did you even find out what the requirements were for the Head of House position? This isn't optional! It's in the damn Charter, and required under Ministry law! And it has been for centuries!"

Minerva frowned. "I was never informed of that," she stated bluntly. "And I still don't know what this is about, Amelia, and that's starting to annoy me."

"Oh no," replied Amelia with a shake of her head. "You don't get to be hard done by on this one Minerva. But you want to know why I'm here? Fine, I'll tell you why."

Amelia speared her with a glare that could have melted solid steel. She was seriously unhappy about things at this school, and she was looking at one of the causes. She had generally had little issue with Minerva McGonagall, but now she knew she should have paid closer attention.

The woman was clearly not doing the job that was required of her — and at the very least, should have resigned her Head of House position so that someone else could do it properly.

"Ginevra Weasley vanished on the night of the Third Task," she told the woman bluntly. "She vanished from Hogwarts grounds, and hasn't been seen since."

Minerva's eyes widened. "That's impossible!" she breathed.

"No, it's damn well not!" snapped Amelia. "You people had a student kidnapped right in front of everyone, and you didn't think to make sure that nobody else was kidnapped? You never even noticed that she was gone, Minerva, and you had an entire week to do so!"

The woman sat back hard in her chair, her breath leaving her in a rush. Her sudden pallor told of her abrupt realization of just how much trouble she was in. Amelia honestly didn't know at this point if she even gave a damn about the welfare of her missing student or was only worried for herself, and that bothered her immensely.

She had never before thought Minerva to be callous or heartless, but this was an obvious oversight of massive proportions. She didn't care to check on her students at all after the Task, or she might have known. Things were definitely going to have to change around here, to say nothing of the messes that Albus was causing.

"She was kidnapped?" asked Minerva faintly.

"No," said Amelia flatly. "That's the one silver lining in the whole affair. Her parents were threatening to disown her, and she was all too aware of what would happen if they did. She felt it was inevitable, so she took the opportunity to leave for a country where it wouldn't be such a big issue. That does not, however, change the fact that her absence should have been reported. I only know because Bill Weasley received a letter from her a week later."

Minerva scowled. "You've been lied to on at least part of that, Amelia," she said. "The Weasleys would never disown their only daughter without cause."

"That's exactly what they nearly did," snapped Amelia right back. "I've verified the facts, Minerva. You'll have to ask Bill if you want details; that's private family business. But I know for a fact that the girl's situation was real, and she did the wisest thing she could under the circumstances."

Silence fell as McGonagall absorbed it, and Amelia found herself wondering what Hogwarts was going to look like next year. Albus would be gone. Minerva would be gone, or least severely demoted. Severus Snape was going down in flames. That was two of only four heads of house, plus the Headmaster.

Hogwarts was going to have to change, especially when the truth of Harry and Ginevra's treatment at Albus' hand came out.

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A/N: Holy moly, a hundred reviews and counting! Thanks for your support everyone, it's greatly appreciated! This is probably one of my least favorite chapters in this story, but we get to read about much more fun things tomorrow. =)