Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own any of the associated characters.
Summary: See previous chapters
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The Ministry of Magic did not like people who spoke their minds, unless they were saying how wonderful the Ministry was, in which case they were probably practising lying with a straight face. They didn't even like people who considered speaking their minds, regardless of whether or not they actually ended up doing so.
The Ministry of Magic especially did not like the Muggleborn Wizard and his Muggle wife for having full custody over the Boy-Who-Lived, refusing to let the Ministry so much as talk to him without what they considered a good reason, and for 'stealing the best and brightest of their generation away from Hogwarts'.
They had ignored the multiple suggestions of perhaps looking at what was wrong with Hogwarts that would make so many of the best and brightest leave in the first place, or that the highest marks tended to be achieved by Muggleborns or Half-Bloods, who didn't plan to coast through life on a family name.
When the Irons' pointed out that since Harry was underage and they were his legal guardians, requests had to go through them, and so far the Ministry of Magic hadn't given then reason enough to allow it, there was much outraged spluttering, but no real reply. The charge of 'stealing student' they left for the parents of said students to answer, as they had withdrawn their children for varied reasons, the latest of which being the Goblet of Fire fiasco, where an underage child had been entered against his will, and later kidnapped from the school grounds.
For some reason, the Ministry of Magic did not think that was a valid excuse for taking their children away from Hogwarts, and were now trying to save face by taking Harry away to be raised by a 'Proper Magical Family', which everyone correctly interpreted as 'Ancient And Preferably Rich Ministry Stooge Who Won't Let Him Near His Real Family Again'.
The Ministry might be used to people rolling over and doing as they were told, but the Irons' had never operated like that, and didn't intend to start now.
Terry Boot and Hannah Abbott had parents in the Ministry's 'Family Department', and had also recently been withdrawn from Hogwarts. Anthony Goldstein was a Pureblood, and had asked Hermione out over the summer, during an outing to help the non-Muggle-raised students adjust to the Muggle world. His parents also owned a law firm, and Hermione was happy at the idea of dating an intelligent boy who was not practically her brother.
The Ministry of Magic had tried to use the media, and received an irate letter from the Queen, who had taken to reading the Wizard paper after the incident at the World Cup last year, had previously had words with the Ministry about how throwing children out of windows was NOT an acceptable method of testing for magic, and wanted to know about their laws on defamation of character. Her Majesty also wanted to know why, if the Irons' were so unsuitable, was something only being done now, when Harry had been with them with no complaints for the past fourteen years.
Aside from the allegiance owed to her as the Queen of England, Elizabeth II was a formidable lady, and the news articles quickly stopped.
Also over the summer, Harry, Natasja and Henry had taken a day to themselves and cornered Dumbledore. As 'Leader of the Light' during Voldemort's first attempt to take over, they reasoned that he probably knew what were the best ways to fight him now, and a number of other things that might be helpful.
Given the way his brother Aberforth grinned and gave them exact directions, fraternal sentiment was very thin. Either way, Dumbledore agreed to come over for tea and a chat. Harry wondered if he could make 'chat' sound so ominous if he practiced, or if it was a mother thing. No matter what else, he agreed that they did need whatever knowledge Dumbledore could give them.
Loose lips might sink ships, but with-held information cause devastation.
The announcement that Voldemort had kept himself alive by using Horcruxes (a fact gained by smearing veritaserum on the edge of the teacups – Dumbledore had only checked the tea and teapot for charms or potions) had been met with some very creative swearing and Henry leaving early to contact several top researchers who had been rejected from the Ministry for being Squibs or Muggle-born.
The announcement that Dumbledore believed Harry to be the seventh Horcrux, and that he would have to die for Voldemort to be defeated (a fact gained when Dumbledore realized that Veritaserum meant that he would be telling them anyway, and might as well give up the rest of the secret now) had been met with a well-aimed punch and the old man being very firmly ejected from the house.
Madam Bones, upon being told of what Dumbledore knew or guessed at or had found out, looked up a few curse-breakers and a freelance exorcist. Mrs Thomas made a few calls to some of her mother's old Bruja and Brujo friends and their students, thinking that non-conventional magic might have a few hints on alternative methods of Dark Lord Destruction that didn't involve Harry dying.
Harry, who had been listening quietly until that point, suggested a medical procedure to stop his heart long enough for him to be declared technically dead, and then re-start it.
It took several hours of arguing (and a very long lecture on how casual self-sacrifice might be nice in books, but not so much in real life) before his mother reluctantly accepted it as a very, very, very last resort that would happen over her not-quite-but-almost-dead body.
His father took even longer to convince (and only after another, just as long, lecture about valuing life and not taking things at face value, especially from senile, manipulative old headmasters). Both parents still favoured the suggested approach of finding the Horcruxes, destroying them, and bludgeoning Voldemort over the head until his spirit made a break for it, before trapping said spirit in the body of a cockroach.
The suggestion had come from one of Mrs Thomas's contacts, who pointed out that cockroaches couldn't hold a wand, and even a talking cockroach would have the short lifespan of insects to which the general reaction was to lunge for a handy shoe or the bug-killing spray.
The Ministry of Magic, led by a toad-like woman by the name of Delores Umbridge, was still trying to get custody of Harry away from the Irons', but had somehow overlooked the fact that the Black Family was older than most, that the default Head of the family was Harry's Godfather, and that Sirius's immediate ancestors had entire books of blackmail material on just about everyone.
It had been a low blow to point out that the Weasleys were already a large family, ill-suited to support another child, but they were also very staunch Dumbledore supporters, and would probably follow any instruction he gave. After Dumbledore's forced confession about Horcruxes, the Irons' were even less inclined than usual to trust Dumbledore or anyone associated with him.
Madam Bones had also applied as a back-up plan (with the unofficial understanding that if she was successful, Harry would spend a night or so every week at her house for the form of things, and the rest of the time at his own home. Susan certainly didn't mind.), and since any objections to her taking custody also applied to most of the rest of the potential 'Ministry Approved' families (and Sirius had blackmail on the rest), the attempts to take Harry away also finally stopped.
It had been a good and fairly impressive plan to try to lure Harry to the Department of Mysteries with a vision of Henry and Natasja being captured and tortured, but it failed after Voldemort had failed to take several things into account.
He could possibly be forgiven, however, as the things he failed to consider were the power of Mobile Phones (not a widespread invention in the seventies and eighties), the fact that he had sent the vision on Movie Night, when Harry's parents were making popcorn a few rooms away, and the presence of several friends who sat on Harry to stop him from rushing off while they thoroughly questioned the two adults as to their identity, just in case.
Madam Bones went to the Department of Mysteries the next day, retrieved the object in question, and brought it back to the Irons' house.
After several caustic remarks about self-fulfilling prophecies and people who put too much stock in the subjective ramblings that might not even come true for centuries (a Japanese Sorcerer had made a prophecy that a certain family would rise to power, which they did… five hundred years later, and after three hundred years of that half-millennium was spent in disgrace), Sirius asked how anyone knew that the Prophecy hadn't been fulfilled on Halloween 1981.
The conversation was repeated to Dumbledore very deliberately in the hearing range of Snape, who everyone knew was a spy, though opinions disagreed on who he was spying for, and the matter was sheepishly dropped, though no-one knew what Voldemort thought of it, and Snape wasn't reporting anything.
The day Lord Voldemort decided to announce his return by appearing in front of half the Ministry (looking even more snake-like than Harry's description of the night in the graveyard) was also the day Sirius was going through some old family possessions, while attempting to transform the lower levels of Grimmauld Place into a semi-school, and discovered a locket that sent the dark magic detectors literally through the roof.
hp
hp
hp
hp
A/N: Right, the next chapter is up, and I hope I did all right.
Seriously though, does no-one else think that there were so many possible ways to get rid of the Horcruxes without killing Harry, or how much better/easier it would have been if Dumbledore had mentioned their existence to a few other people, rather than leaving the Trio to blunder about for an entire year?
Also, doesn't anyone else think that the Blacks would have had some kind of blackmail, bribe or favour owed from pretty much every other dark-side family? The Malfoys bribed most of the Ministry, though Bellatrix was probably more inclined to terrorize people into doing what she said, and all of the Pureblood families are connected in some way or another.
Anyway, that's enough from me, and the next chapter should be up some time next week.
As always, Constructive Criticism and reviews are appreciated, while Flames are used to dry things out after the latest weeks-long bout of wet weather.
Thanks, Nat.