Authors Note. Some of you have been waiting for this chapter, I hope that you all enjoy it.
Harry Potter and the New Neighbours.Chapter 11. One Problem Solved.
The three of them sat in contemplative silence for a minute and then as they were getting up, in a swirl of red and gold Fawkes, the Headmasters Phoenix, arrived with a letter for Harry.
The letter read.
To the Lord and Lady of the Light,
Please bring Senior Auror Tonks to my office immediately.
In haste,
A. Bones. M.of M.
Harry said to Hermione, "Kitchen!"
Stood in the kitchen Hermione said, "Do you know where Tonks is please Sur…"
"I'm here!" said Tonks, coming into the kitchen from the Games Room, "What's the problem, I was just going to watch television for a bit?"
He handed her the note and she said, "I must change quickly, I can't go to work like this."
She was wearing something that looked suitable for spending the evening with your lover, or afternoon, definitely not suitable for fighting baddies, Harry took her hand and with Hermione, they were stood outside the door to her room. Tonks disappeared into her room and was out again ready for work in two minutes, Hermione and Harry each took one of her hands, the trio became invisible then went to the Minister's office.
Amelia was sat there quietly waiting with Dumbledore and after a second Harry removed their invisibility.
Dumbledore spoke first, "We have good reason to believe that Voldemort is going to mount an assault on the Ministry in about fifteen minutes."
The minister took over the briefing, "It will be him with virtually all of his Death Eaters, our spy told us at least six hundred and fifty of them. A bakers dozen, Portkey invitation targets have been placed in the entrance auditorium, these will allow their Portkeys to bypass the security wards. What do you suggest we do? I could bring in all of the Aurors if you wanted them?"
Harry thought for a minute then asked, "You know where all of the targets are?" Amelia nodded so he continued, "So we should be in a position to watch them arrive, is there a place where we will be able to see them all?" Amelia said that there was so they all held hands, then they all became invisible and Harry said, "Amelia now you try to Apparate us to the spot."
The quintet had arrived, still invisible, on a dais to one side but in the centre of the atrium, after Hermione had cast a privacy bubble she told them what she had done and that they could talk, so Harry said, "We will remain invisible until after they arrive, but keep your eyes open."
"We don't know who placed the targets." Amelia said.
"Yes we do," said Hermione pointing at the Animagus rat, it was scurrying across the floor to a spot near the centre of the room, "Wormtail, Peter Pettigrew."
Instantly Harry's finger was pointing at the rat but as he lowered his arm he said, "There is no hurry wait and do it properly, when they are all here."
About a minute and a half later there was a whoosh as all of the Portkeys arrived, as Wormtail transformed from his rat form Harry cast his own anti magical transportation ward over the room, effectively stopping anyone leaving. Next he replaced the privacy bubble with a total protection shield.
"Gwahardd Cyfareddol." (Inhibit magic) Harry said in a loud voice and then he made the quintet visible, Mundo Cyfareddol was next it was the same spell that they had used in the courtroom to remove the magic from all of the Death Eaters there.
To no avail, upwards of six hundred and fifty Death Eaters were trying to cast spells, a lot of which were unforgivable, at the group, they should of saved their energy.
The Lord of the Light walked over to Voldemort and said, "I am afraid that my last spell will affect you differently to everyone else, it drains magic and when it drains your magic you will be no more, you are not alive you are just a magical assemblage."
Voldemort laughed, "You can not kill me. Only Harry Potter can kill me."
"Didn't we tell you Tom?" Hermione said quite cheerfully as Harry removed their disguises, "The Lord of the Light is Harry Potter and the Lady is his Muggle fiancé, me."
Harry turned to Voldemort and cast the last spell Tom Riddle would ever hear, "Dal Hanfod." (Contain essence.)
A golden bubble enclosed the Dark Lord and he screamed until he was no more and all that was left was a grey mist inside the golden bubble that had shrunk until it was the size of a hens egg.
"Collfarnu hwn Enaid at y Dyfnder." (Condemn this soul to the Abyss.) Harry said pointing at the egg, which simply disappeared and a great weight seemed to lift off the wizard world.
All this time Death Eaters had been dieing from the outer edges of the crowd and the wave of lifeless bodies was approaching the centre.
Hermione asked Amelia, "Where can we send these corpses?"
The Minister answered grimly, "We placed a cooling charm on Azkaban, all of the other bodies are still there, you can send these to join them."
Now there were only two Death Eaters remaining, Bellatrix Lestrange and Wormtail.
Harry said sadly, "Death is to good for you pair but I am afraid it is all that I have to offer. The clock you can see is counting down by the second, the five days until the moment of your death and you will find that you cannot kill either yourself or each other. You will be able to injure each other but this will only cause you more pain and you will be allowed to roam freely through Azkaban I trust there is something there for you both to eat. Good bye."
The pair disappeared.
Hermione handed Amelia some sheets of parchment and said, "These lists are the names and deeds of the six hundred and fifty three Death Eaters who met their demise here today, even those at the end of the list have committed multiple serious offences against Muggles. Here is the list of those left alive, for obvious reasons we wish to deal with the top two ourselves but we will leave the others up to you."
Harry waved his hand removing the shielding he had placed over the atrium and the Headmaster said, "We should give a statement and copies of these lists to the press and we should also tell them that you two are the Lord and Lady of the Light?"
The couple agreed but before he had finished hundreds of witches and wizards were streaming into the building and surrounding the quintet who had made their way back up onto the dais near the centre of the room. It was understandable that the people were gathering around the quintet obviously waiting for some kind of an announcement from them.
Amelia was the Minister for Magic and she stepped forward, "Today Harry Potter has done it for us all, again! Voldemort is gone, this time permanently."
She had to stop for about five minutes before she could be heard above the cheering, then she continued, "But that doesn't mean that there isn't another who wishes to take his place so we must be ever watchful, to quote Professor Dumbledore, 'we must do what is right not what is easy'. We wish to take this opportunity to inform you that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger are the Lord and Lady of the Light and the actions of today and Friday are their doing."
All of the cheering was deafening and after another five minutes Harry stepped forward, there was absolute silence, "Thank you every one, but what are you all doing here?" he asked and they looked confused, "You should all be home partying."
There were more tumultuous cheers and eventually the people started heading out of the building that is with the exception of about fifty of the younger females who were making their way towards the dais with Susan and Daphne leading them.
It was fifteen minutes and a promise of a party starting at ten the next morning in Hogwarts grounds, before the gathering broke up; even then they were left with Amelia's two determined nieces.
Hermione said, "You need to call a Press conference and we need to rest, do you need us?"
"Everything will be a lot better if you are there," the Headmaster said, "after all you two are the stars of the show."
Dejectedly Harry asked, "Where will it be?"
Amelia told him, "There is a small Press conference room near to my office and it will only take ten minutes to organise so you two can have five minutes in my private resting room before hand if you want."
With a small smile Hermione answered holding out her hands, "Let's go up to your office then and that will be fine."
When the determined pair realised that the others were holding Hermione's hands they both grabbed one of Harry's hands, he had to tell them that they had to hold someone else's hand as well and they all arrived safely in Amelia's Office.
Susan said, "I thought that it wasn't possible to Apparate in the Ministry?"
"Quite correct." the Headmaster said.
"But…" Susan started but then her aunt cut her off, "Don't even ask, you will not receive an answer."
There was no easy way to prise the determined hands away from Harry's but eventually they succeeded and the couple went into Amelia's private resting room.
x-x
First it was twice around the running track that was four miles and it released some of the pent up stress then an hour playing in the pool it could not be called swimming but it could definitely be called playing. This was followed by a nice meal, for which Elfin joined them, she ate a little but mainly it was to make sure they weren't suffering any ill effects from what they had to do in the Ministry. Next it was ten hours in bed only seven of which were spent sleeping, a shower and a light breakfast followed this, then they were ready to return to the Minister's resting room.
x-x
As they did this kind of thing more often it was becoming easier, for them it would have been a relaxing twelve plus hours but for Tonks it had only been five minutes.
Quietly she said, "You look well rested?"
To them it was obviously a question and Hermione answered as they were coming out of the Ministers room, "Yes we are thank you, is everything ready?"
It was Amelia who answered, "Yes, except that we will have to be in the main Press briefing room on the ground floor, the reporters have been flooding in from all over the world. I suppose that it is only natural."
Harry held one of Tonks hands and then took one of Hermione's and said, "Ok, who is going to take us there?"
The others joined hands with a pair of disgruntled cousins between the Headmaster and Amelia who guided them all to a small room behind the podium of the Pressroom.
As they came out on to the stage and sat on the chairs that were there for them they noticed that the room was already about half full with a good cross section of reporters. But when someone by the door realised that Harry and company were already inside there was a stampede, it was more like a pop concert than a news conference with young reporters of both sexes jostling and standing five or six deep in front of the stage.
Amelia went to the lectern and made a simple announcement to the audience, "Until you are all sitting there will be no Press conference, and if you are not all sitting within two minutes then we will all leave."
There was a mad scramble for seats and in less than their allotted two minutes the reporters were all seated.
Amelia spoke again, "Thank you all very much for coming and for sitting properly.
I assume that you would all like to know what transpired in the Ministry today, well quite simply Voldemort attacked us at three o'clock this afternoon and thanks to excellent intelligence we were expecting him. By three thirty he and over six hundred and fifty of his followers, Death Eaters, that were with him were no more, he is gone, finished, no more call it what you will."
A female voice from the reporters said, "You never told us that he V. Voldemort, is dead."
Much to her relief Harry and Hermione joined Amelia at the lectern and Harry said, "You cannot kill something that is not alive and to all intents and purposes Voldemort was not alive, we will only get a load of questions so I will try to explain what I mean.
A little over a year ago I watched Wormtail enact an ancient black magic ritual for Voldemort it involved bone of his father, flesh of a follower and blood of an enemy, my blood. The magic bound these things together and produced what appeared to be a body for his essence to inhabit, strictly speaking it was not alive, it was simply bound and operated by magic.
Today I contained that essence whilst I unravelled the magical binding of his body then I sent his essence to the Abyss, I don't think that he enjoyed it very much. You will not be told how five of us dealt with the menace that was presented to the wizarding world today, Professor Dumbledore, Senior Auror Tonks and the Minister were there together with Hermione and myself."
Once more Amelia took up the briefing, "You will all have noticed that the emphasis has changed with the removal of a Death Eater from my current position, my personal belief is that if you are a Death Eater you deserve to die, well now that belief is official. I am very lucky that since I took over Hermione and Harry, also known as the Lord and Lady of the Light have been by my side helping with the cause of peace. One more thing on the subject of Death Eaters, there are nineteen remaining, we know who they are and rest assured they will be dealt with, soon."
With no further news forthcoming the news conference didn't last very much longer, all personal questions to either Hermione or Harry were either ignored or deflected, none were answered and so the reporters left to file their stories.
Reflectively Amelia said, "If we try to get out through the atrium it will be a nightmare, we're likely to get mobbed."
Hermione smiled and said, "Let's go back into the waiting room and we will take us all out of here, where would you like to go?"
The party made their way back into the small room at the back of the stage and the pair of disgruntled cousins each grabbed one of Harry's hands as smiling the others all linked up.
With a twinkle in his eyes the Headmaster said, "Well really I would like to go to my office in Hogwarts, but…"
Professor McGonagall was sat quietly reading in front of the fireplace in the Headmaster's office when the seven arrived, for the first time in thirty years she dropped her book, you could say that she was surprised.
Looking at the Headmaster quite severely she said, "For the last hour and a half I have been getting the most ridiculous questions from all sorts of people, what on earth is going on? Also since we put those new wards up you shouldn't be able to use a Portkey so how did you all get here?"
"Second question first," the twinkling Headmaster said, "Hermione and Harry Apparated us here and as for the answer to the first question you might as well read about it in the special edition of the Daily Prophet which is just arriving. Although I would suggest that you sit down first."
As the Deputy Headmistress took the newspaper and sat down, Harry was having a real problem, neither Susan nor Daphne had been in the Headmaster's office before and they were both trying to look all around without letting go of his hand.
Amelia saw his plight and said, "Girls! Let go of Harry's hands."
Stereo, "Bu…"
"Now!"
Harry was relieved to be free and he went over to stroke his friend Fawkes, the Headmaster's pet Phoenix, who to the girls delight started singing as Harry was petting him.
Professor McGonagall let out a whoop and said, "So it's virtually all over then?"
The Headmaster agreed but Harry said, "So I can leave the problem of Mephisto Malfoy to you then?"
Minerva was bemused, "Who is Mephisto Malfoy?"
The bookworm was off, "He was born about three hundred and eighty years ago and his original name was Cresco but he changed it after he had been missing for about thirty years…"
She told the teachers the whole story that the others had heard before but added, "Harry thinks that Mephisto Malfoy is the real Dark Lord and all of these others who have been around for the last few hundred years have simply been his front men, so to speak."
Daphne was looking worried, "So just how powerful is he," she asked?
Harry answered, "Very powerful."
"If he cast a single spell that changed all of the elves to house elf slaves," the Headmaster said, "then he is very, very powerful."
"I can cast a single spell that will change all of them back again," Harry said in quite a matter of fact manner, "and when I do, it is going to upset him slightly, well in reality probably quite a lot. We think that a good bit of his power is tied up in the elves and when I change them he will probably come for me straight away figuring that I will be drained, but he doesn't know about Hermione.
Yet.
Her job will be to make sure that he doesn't hurt anyone else."
"As I see it, my main task Mr Potter." Hermione said in her, 'this isn't up for negotiation' voice. "Will be to make sure that you stay alive and to protect everyone else as well."
From his demeanour it appeared that Harry hadn't heard her and he said, "We should be getting on, so where would you like to go Amelia?"
When Harry had started asking his question two girls had grabbed his hands and smiling Amelia answered, "Would it be too much trouble for you to take us home please?"
The other three held hands with them and after saying goodbye to the professors Harry nodded to Amelia and the party disappeared.
The Deputy Headmistress said, "I'm glad they're on our side."
The Headmaster could only agree with her.
Neither Hermione nor Harry had been to Amelia's house previously and from what they could see of it, it looked very comfortable but none of the three were in the mood to hang around for long so after a polite goodbye they left.
Susan whinged, "Why did they leave so quickly?"
Amelia laughed out loud, fifteen years in MLE had taught her that sometimes it is better to tell it as it is, "Try thinking with your head's instead of your knickers. Harry and Hermione are very obviously boyfriend and girlfriend," both of the girls were shocked at the language, but however much they didn't want to, they did have to agree with the sentiment, "but if he was the boyfriend of one of you, would you hang around here with you pair carrying on the way you have been since you first set eyes on him this afternoon?"
Looking sheepish both of the girls said sorry to their aunt and Daphne told her that they would write a letter apologising to Hermione and Harry.
Aunt Amelia looked sorry for the girls and said, "Ginny Weasley is coming to your birthday party talk to her about it, I have it on good authority that she has been hopelessly in love with Harry for five years, to make things worse, he saved her life three years ago. Like killed a Basilisk also a reincarnation of Voldemort saved her life and somehow she still manages to stay friends with both of them."
"I talked with her a bit at the house elves party the other evening," Daphne said sadly, "she warned me to just hold back and be friends with him or he would just avoid me."
"It sometimes pays to have six brothers." Amelia said as the cousins were going to write their letter.
The trio arrived back in the entrance hall of the Potters Place to what resembled chaos.
Wrong.
It was chaos.
Grabbing Jiffs as she went whizzing past Harry asked, "What on earth is going on?"
Instead of answering him she shouted, "The heroes are home," and then she flung her arms around Harry and hugged him, she followed this by hugging both Hermione and Tonks.
By this time there was a huge crowd around them, which comprised elves, house elves and humans, Harry looked around then said, "Jemma, here now."
Jemma came proudly forward and said, "Welcome Harry, Hermione and Tonks you are all heroes."
Harry had a feeling that he was going to lose but he asked anyway, "What are you doing?"
The elf smiled and said, "We are having a victory party, for you three. Heroes."
He could see Ginny, Ron and several others standing well back waiting for his reaction, they knew that it didn't pay to upset the most powerful wizard in the world, they were only slightly relieved when he asked, "Who said that we should have a party?"
Jemma beamed, "It was our friend Jane," Jane cringed, "who is soon going to be your mother in law and she was the most senior one here for me to ask."
Harry shrugged his shoulders and disappeared.
If they had started with chaos well it had now become pandemonium, where had Harry gone, nobody had any idea and then fifteen minutes later he reappeared with company. Harry had brought Mad Eye Moody, Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Dumbledore and together with Amelia, Susan and Daphne, the last two looked like they were only half ready.
Everybody was so happy to see Harry return that nobody said anything to him, this of course was with the exception of Hermione who in a very dangerous sickly sweet tone asked, "And so what was that all about then, Mr Potter?"
His green eyes looked into hers so she could see the truth in his words when he said, "If I had stayed here another minute I might well of blown the house up, so I went to talk to the headmaster and he told me to go and enjoy the party that my mother in law had arranged for me. So here I am."
She kissed him then said, "Another reason I love you, we had better go and get changed for the party."
A large crowd went up the main staircase to prepare for the festivities; Hermione and Mimi went to Hermione's room, Tonks went to her room and Remus who wanted to know everything that had happened was following her. Ginny took Daphne and Susan to her room to complete their preparations and the way they were giggling Harry who was going to his room didn't want to know what or who they were talking about. Trailing along behind were Molly, Arthur, Luna, Ron, Matt, Jane and Amelia. Mad Eye Moody and the professors were taken into the party room by some of the elves that had already been converted.
All in all the party was excellent and in the most part Harry enjoyed it until they came to the part where all of the single women decided that they should give Harry a congratulatory kiss. Eventually he said, "Ginny, is that the forth time?"
"No," she said smiling, "It was the fifth, Susan and Daphne will be along for their fifth ones soon as well."
Authors Note. We are moving inexorably towards the conclusion of this tale that has travelled to places I hadn't dreamed of when I started writing it. So if you have enjoyed it PLEASE REVIEW it.