Chapter 27: The Minister Managed

Disclaimer: Same song and dance, none of this belongs to me.

The wait was agonising for the staff as they waited for Dumbledore to return. Snape had reappeared with a Crystal Vial holding a clear liquid inside it. Truth Serum, able to pull the deepest of secrets from a person with barely the ability to fight back. Elizabeth was not sure how she felt about it, on one hand, the ability to see all truths with but a simple question was valuable, the ability to prevent a criminal from hiding what he knew was a great boon for any form of law enforcement.

But the truth was a dangerous thing, uncontrolled access to it could cause so many problems. But this situation required it. A man believed dead now sat restrained in front of them. A man who was believed to be a traitor could potentially be innocent and locked away in a prison to be tortured for twelve long years by the wardens. With what she had been told, if they were even half as bad as they were described then she didn't want even the guilty to suffer under them.

Peter Pettigrew sat restrained in the chair at the centre of the room, Runestones were set up around him, the man, an Animagus with the ability to turn into a rat was blocked by the stones. The protections of the School were more than enough to stop any other attempts to escape and with the Heads of houses there was no chance of him getting to the fireplace to Floo himself out. But he had yet to make a move, he was still scared, he was still resigned to his fate, but he wasn't making any attempt to escape. She wanted to ask more questions, she wanted to know more but without Dumbledore around she didn't want to overstep her bounds.

Pettigrew had revealed a new player, one that had acted in ways that had thrown everyone off what they thought they knew. Someone had messed around with how things were meant to play out. Peter having been captured should have died that evening when he had been caught... or cave in to Voldemort's request to save himself at the cost of James and Lily's life. A choice, a cage that would have locked his fate to either death or betrayal. But someone had unlocked that cage, a new third path that was not there before.

The man that she had been chasing.

She wanted to ask questions. No, she wanted to DEMAND answers from Pettigrew, the only one to have seen him here, find out why he was so obsessed with meddling, why he had been so focused on this place. Still, Dumbledore was on his way with the authority and the questions could be asked. She could wait.

She had all the time in the world.

As if in response to what she had been thinking, the fireplace roared to life, Dumbledore stepped through first followed by the familiar Amelia Bones, the woman stumbling slightly as she saw Peter Pettigrew but recovered quickly, behind her, a smaller man stepped out, dressed in a black robe, the most distinguishing feature from the portly man was the lime green bowler hat that he was wearing.

"Good lord, Dumbledore what have you done to this man?" He asked, seeing the man restrained in the chair.

"We found him during an inspection of the students after one of them was attacked last night." Dumbledore explained as he took a moment to brush the dirt from the Floo travel off his robe. "Being found in Animagus form we took no chances that he may have been the one responsible for the attack."

"Then who is he Dumbledore?" Amelia asked, being older than the Marauders, she was less familiar with them, James and Sirius had joined the Auror Corp for a brief period of time but again she had not been directly involved with their actions. So not knowing Peter Pettigrew after all this time was understandable.

"We believe him to be Peter Pettigrew."

"Peter Pettigrew? But he's dead." Amelia and the man both spoke at the same time.

"Which is why I personally came to fetch you Madame Bones, Minister Fudge." Dumbledore responded patiently, "we spoke to him initially to find out more information and what he revealed was quite... distressing."

"Distressing? The man's a decorated War Hero, he's been hiding as a Rat for who knows how long!" Fudge protested, "and now he's bound and held like a prisoner."

"The risk was not worth it, with him restrained we knew that he was secure either from himself or the person responsible for the attack on the student. Upon waking him he revealed who he was and informed us of multiple events that change several things that we thought we knew."

"But why was he hiding?" Madame Bones questioned and Dumbledore turned to face her.

"He claims it was for his own safety, he was being hunted by someone because of what he knew."

"But you can't mean the Dark Lord wanted him?" Fudge commented in disbelief with a gesture at Peter. "We've all heard the stories of him from back in his school days, he was an outsider, even with his group of friends." Fudge explained and seemed almost dismissive of the man in front of him.

"Forgive me minister, but I never said Voldemort was responsible for what he decided to do," there was a flinch from the professors and Dumbledore continued, "he claims that he was saved by someone and coerced into performing a task, he fears that the man is after him to stop him talking about what he knows. We also learnt something new about Sirius Black."

"Sirius Black is a murderer and rotting in prison like he deserves." Fudge snapped angrily.

"But is he though?"

"There were witnesses, they saw him cast the spell, they saw the street explode!" Fudge argued back and Dumbledore gestured to the man that sat bound in the chair, trying not to be noticed even if he was the centre of attention.

"A survivor from that incident would beg to differ." Dumbledore commented and Fudge found himself shutting up, he had seen pictures of Peter Pettigrew, he could see the similarities, there was little doubt in his mind that this was the man in question but what else did he know. What damage could he do to the ministry with what he could reveal?

"I assume you have Veriatserum to question him?" Madame Bones asked and Severus held up the vial that he had.

"Part of the shipment that was to be sent to the Ministry, I assume you don't mind the usage?" Severus commented with his usual bored drawl and Amelia nodded her head.

"Under the current situation I am allowing the usage of Veriatserum on the suspect known as Peter Pettigrew." She ordered and Severus stepped round. Surprisingly, Peter willingly opened his mouth to allow the potion to be administered.

They waited with bated breath as the potion took it's time to take effect, eventually the glazed look on Peter's face took over, showing that it had worked. "What is your name?" Minister Fudge asked.

"Peter Pettigrew." He responded in a monotone voice. Madame Bones took over the questioning, taking a moment to throw a pointed look at Fudge for immediately interrupting her from doing her questions before she started to run through all the questions she could think of for the events leading up to the night that James and Lily Potter were murdered.

The story stayed the same.

"Who was the man that saved you?"

"I don't know. He never said his name and after I was unable to find anything on him."

"What did he look like?" Elizabeth asked, interrupting Madame Bones before she could ask another question earning a glare of her own.

"Tall, dark hair, he had an accent. I don't know what it was, he had a scar on his face, wore an old suit, pale as well." Pettigrew described and with each moment Elizabeth felt the dread build up again, but it slowly gave way to confusion as she realised that it wasn't right.

It didn't add up.

The person he was describing did not match anyone that she had known. Though surely it had to be someone.

She shook her head, banishing the thoughts, calming herself it wasn't a shadow of her past. It couldn't be. Though a small voice whispered to her, the description was vague and old, it may not even be accurate. Bad information is worse than no information. It could cause many more problems if she acted on it.

Part of her thought back to Rapture, several figures that had access or knew of her abilities to some extent. There were multiple outcomes that could have been played out and that left many things to be taken to chance. Perhaps when this was all over, she could dig out some security photos from different Raptures of the various people that she knew could be the most likely culprit.

If it was not one of them then it left only one question for her and the rest of the group. Was it someone new?

HPCVHPCV

Harry had answered questions for the others of the events that he had witnessed, he spoke about the library on fire, he spoke about the corridor with Death Eaters that the Gryffindor chasers had come across. He explained that he had seen a version of Hogwarts where he was a girl, much to their amusement. "You laugh but I'm pretty sure that I could find an alternate version of you guys that you wouldn't want to see," Harry responded in kind as he looked towards the window. "It's been a while; I hope everything's okay." He muttered in concern, "The lockdown is still in effect... Surely they had either beaten the problem or it had escaped. He wanted to do what she had done and just go find her and find out what was going on, but he had promised, he would remain here, at least for a little bit longer.

Anthony asked him about his holiday, he laughed as he started to tell them about the version of New York that they had visited. It felt good to talk to others about what he had done and what he could do outside of just Elizabeth. He just hoped that they didn't talk to others.

HPCVHPCVHPCV

"Did Sirius Black betray James and Lily Potter?" Amelia asked returning the questions back to the current topic at hand.

"I don't know, he asked to switch Secret Keepers, if he truly was trying to betray them then he would have taken the role himself." Peter responded, he understood the makeup of the spell, only the Secret Keeper could give the information out to reveal the location. If Sirius was the traitor, then surely it would make sense that he would keep himself as the Secret Keeper.

"What happened when Sirius confronted you in the street?"

"I was running, not because of The Dark Lords actions but because I was scared of the other person, he had appeared multiple times since that first encounter. He never said anything, I'd just catch glimpses of him out of the corner of my eye. I arrived on the street, Sirius apparated and confronted me, he accused me of betraying them, of selling them out to Voldemort. He wasn't there when the spell was put on hold, so I don't think he realised that it had been put on hold. We argued, he accused me of betraying them, we went for our wands and then there was an explosion. He never fired a spell; I didn't fire a spell."

"Dumbledore, this has to be a mistake, the truth serum has to be faulty, he just can't be telling the truth." Fudge said sharply to Dumbledore at the side of the room as the truth came out. "The amount of damage this would do is catastrophic, it would shatter the trust in the Ministry for years to come."

"Or, it could be used to show more strength in the Ministry." Dumbledore corrected with a calculating look. "The people responsible for it are either gone or no longer in positions of power, Barty Crouch was reassigned after his own son was caught torturing the Longbottom's." Elizabeth turned in surprise at hearing that, she knew Neville Longbottom, he was a good kid, nervous and hesitant but that was completely new to her. But it was something that she'd have to look into. It could explain a lot about him. "There is apparently enough suspicion in the action that it could be argued that you're re-investigating it. New Evidence has come to light."

"But there will be outrage that he was allowed to be there for so long."

"The public will be angry for a short while, that much is obvious, but you can use this to show that the remnants of the last war, that dark time of distrust is gone, that you will lead the ministry into a new Golden Age, the pieces are already there, with the Malfoys now supporting more rights for those that were isolated in the previous war we have the potential to build something." Dumbledore emphasised and Fudge stood looking thoughtfully for several moments, scratching his chin as he hummed quietly the political mind of the Minister ticking away. Madame Bones stood to one side watching the events unfold, regardless of what Minister Fudge decided, she would still do everything in her power to investigate Sirius Black, an innocent man would not rot in Azkaban if she had anything to say about it.

"You're right, this was the mistakes of Crouch and Bagnold!" Fudge agreed readily, "Of course we wouldn't be able to stop at just Sirius Black, we'd have to investigate more of the prisoners. From the top to the bottom, the amount of work and manpower..."

"Would require me to have more staff. Perhaps more clerks so that the Aurors can be out in the field like they're meant to be." Amelia interrupted and Fudge nodded again.

"Yes, yes, that can work. We look like we're searching for the truth and protecting the people. A win, win!" Fudge said happily.

Elizabeth watched the interaction as Dumbledore and Madame Bones directed Minister Fudge in the path that they wanted, on one hand she was happy with it, it was there to help an innocent man and prevent a corruption of justice. Though the darker side of it was just as clear, if they could easily manipulate him, what could someone on the other side of the spectrum do with a whisper and a bribe? "Headmaster." She spoke up, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "I don't mean to presume, but with all of this going on, would it not be better to inform Harry about this long before it gets taken to the press? I know I personally would prefer to find out about this from the people who first found out about it rather than a twisted version in the press."

"You are of course correct, Mr Potter will be informed, though perhaps that could wait until after Mr Pettigrew is medically examined and the lockdown removed on the School itself." Dumbledore agreed flicking his wand, the rope that had restrained Peter Pettigrew disappearing, the runestones levitating up towards Bathsheda who grabbed them out of the air. "Professor McGonagall, would you be so kind as to take Peter to the Medical Wing? The remaining three will continue the search, I will organise the others and then see to the wards, with one unregistered Animagus in the school, I do not want to stumble across another one so soon." Dumbledore said with a small smile as the staff begun to perform the actions that were requested of them. He turned to the Minister and Madame Bones. "I assume that Sirius Black will be removed from Azkaban as soon as possible." He said in a tone that led to no opposition, as the leader of the Wizengamot and also the International Confederation of Wizards, his word carried a lot of power.

Madame Bones gave him a stern look in response, one that showed that she didn't appreciate her integrity in this situation being called into question. "I will set my best Aurors on it immediately."

"Of course, of course, Amelia, draw up some plans to restart the investigation and have them for me at your earliest convenience." Minister Fudge ordered and Madame Bones nodded her head as they made their way over the fireplace. "Albus, I assume we are free to depart?" He said in reference to the lockdown. Dumbledore closed his eyes and nodded his head, the two leaving in green flames moments later leaving Dumbledore, Elizabeth and Bathsheda stood in the room as the desk and chairs started to move back to their original position.

"Headmaster, during all of this there's a question that has been scratching at the back of my mind." Elizabeth said slowly, "that rune network that was set up, I never learnt all that was there, I know the initial parts that Bathsheda told me but not the rest. What was there?" She questioned and Dumbledore sighed slightly, a pained look flashing across his face as Bathsheda looked away, moving towards the window to look across the grounds.

"We're not sure, there are still chunks that haven't been analysed. A lot of it looks relatively harmless, preservation runes and stasis runes to make sure that you were perfectly healthy, there were a few damaged that I can only begin to guess at what they were for." Bathsheda explained calmly, folding her arms as she leant against the wall still looking out across the grounds.

She watched their reactions and listened to what Bathsheda had said and frowned. There was something that they were leaving out, "but what aren't you telling me?" Elizabeth questioned looking between the two as Dumbledore sat down at his desk, opening the top draw and removing a piece of folded parchment.

"I didn't want to mention anything until we knew what the plan was, there was one rune that I translated, I've told no one yet." Bathsheda explained with a gesture to the folded paper. "That one rune changes everything depending on how it was meant to be used." She sighed, turning away again, not willing to look Elizabeth in the face. She had learnt the rune shortly after they had arrived and had kept it quiet until Dumbledore had spoken to her at Christmas. "It makes me think that it was never intended for the person who caught you to activate it himself."

"You think it was set up for Harry to find it?" Elizabeth asked as she picked up the parchment, holding the folded piece of paper in her hands and wondering whether or not to open it.

"I think it's entirely possible, which makes me wonder whether he thought you were expendable, or Harry would just be easier to control." Bathsheda responded.

"Know this," Dumbledore started. "The content of that note changes nothing, you will have a place here for as long as you need it or as long as you want it. You have done so much to help and anything that we can do to help you, we will."

Crash

The door opened loudly, Lockhart stepping into the room dramatically. "Ah good, hello, sorry for the interruption Headmaster." Lockhart started quickly completely missing the tone of the room as he stepped up towards the desk. "Search of the third and fourth floors are completed, no dark artefacts have been found though there was a boggart, to think it could scare me with that illusion." He bragged, missing or ignoring the looks that were currently on the faces of the other three, disbelief seemed to follow him wherever he went. "I wanted to speak to you, a thought I had as I was dealing with the pest." He shuddered in an over exaggerated manner. "To think it would scare me with that bad hair. It will take more than that to scare Gilderoy Lockhart." He shook his head as if the mere thought was insulting more than a representation of his fears. "With this incident that has happened and as a way for them to get some extra lessons in spell casting, I was thinking of starting a duelling club."

"A duelling club?" Dumbledore repeated after a few moments of silence, "it has the potential to work." Dumbledore nodded his head; Professor Flitwick had mentioned in the past that he had wanted to do something like that for the older students but perhaps an introduction to all of them to allow any who were interested to try out and investigate the duelling scene.

"Of course, I am hoping to get multiple professors to help me with this, various experiences and abilities on display and all." Lockhart said looking to Bathsheda and Elizabeth with a big smile.

"Don't look at me," Elizabeth started with a raising of her hands to back out of the arrangement. "I have as much training as the second years, that is to say none at all. If I was there it'd be as one of the crowds." She finished and Lockhart nodded in understanding, looking back towards Bathsheda.

Silence was the initial response before Bathsheda grinned with an almost predatorial like grin. "Oh, I think I could help a bit, it'd give me a way to show the people that runes could be used for more than just wards." She said in agreement.

"Excellent, excellent!" Lockhart said cheerfully with an excited clap of his hands, "I'll return and help Professor Sinestra finish her search, by your leave Headmaster?" Lockhart questioned getting a nod, he gave a dramatic bow and turned with a flourish exiting out of the room.

The three left in the room looked at the door, watching the empty space in an attempt to process the whiplash in mood that had just occurred, Elizabeth still twirling the folded parchment in her hands. "Regardless of your opinions of the man, he surely knows how to make an entrance." Dumbledore observed drawing small smiles of amusement from the other two.

"Perhaps, but not how to read a room." Bathsheda deadpanned. Looking at Elizabeth, she gestured to the parchment, "back on track, on there you will find the rune that I believe shows that someone else was supposed to activate the network and not the person that set it up." She paused again, thinking of how to phrase the next part. "That rune is one that has a myriad of uses, the main one is connecting, what connection is made is determined by the other runes in the system."

"Will this change anything?" Elizabeth asked, the parchment held between two fingers as she held it up before returning to her idle fiddling of the parchment as Bathsheda shrugged.

"Depends, on one hand I don't know if it activated, on the other hand, if it has then how you approach things will have to change."

Elizabeth stepped over to the fireplace, watching the flames flicker, she continued twisting the parchment in her hands. So much had changed today, revelation after revelation and now one sat in the palm of her hands, there was only one logical outcome, read the note, learn the truth and adapt.

She dropped it into the fire.

"What are you doing?" Bathsheda asked in shock, moving quickly to her.

"I can't know," Elizabeth said quietly as she stood watching the parchment blacken and burn. "Not yet at least, not until I know I can keep it secret if it's what I believe."

"The Malfoys?" Bathsheda questioned and Elizabeth nodded her head.

"At the moment it is fear of the future that I have shown them that keeps them on the path they're taking." Elizabeth explained, tearing her gaze away from the flames and walking back to the centre of the room. "If I can't keep whatever that was secret from them then it may be used as leverage for them to try something. They've been ignoring me so far thanks to their workload with helping the Werewolves get setup, but I don't doubt that will change soon." Elizabeth mused as she stood in front of Dumbledore's desk. "But now I need to ask a favour." She started hesitantly; she'd most likely do it even if he said no but it'd be easier with his agreement.

"Ask and I will give it all due consideration, that's all I can promise."

"Understandable," Elizabeth agreed before starting her request. "With what Pettigrew said, I want to investigate just who it was, but to do so, I'm going to have to leave for a little bit, I'm hoping that I'm able to return as soon as I leave but that's not always possible."

"I am of course unable to stop you leaving if that is what you wish, I assume you believe this to be a shadow of your past?" Dumbledore questioned and Elizabeth sighed before nodding.

"I do, it's too much of a coincidence to be otherwise. I want to see if I can find some photos of various people who it could be."

"Couldn't you just bring pictures here?" Bathsheda asked and Elizabeth shook her head.

"While I could bring pictures here, it's too vague, there's an infinite number of variations that could happen, no if I want to do this I'm going to have to go to the closest version that I can, I need to do it in person."

"Closest? Could you not just get them from the source itself?" Bathsheda asked and a shared look between Elizabeth and Dumbledore, who knew slightly more on the situation that Bathsheda saw Elizabeth shaking her head slowly.

"No, the door is shut for me, shut, sealed and forever closed." Elizabeth replied softly. She glanced at Bathsheda who looked even more confused by the turn of events. "It was closed after my first encounter and locked after my second." She explained without really explaining anything leaving Bathsheda even more confused. "If that door is to open, it won't be for me. I can never again go there. Harry himself would have to go in alone and that is out of the question." She said before Dumbledore could object to her statement. Seeing the look of approval in response to her statement she realised that he had been about to do just that. "But it was only part of my request to ask for permission to leave, I would like to ask, if she is willing, if I could borrow Bathsheda to help me during this?" Elizabeth said glancing at her friend.

"Me?" Bathsheda responded in shock, stepping back slightly as she processed what had happened. "Why me? I'm a teacher, a researcher, my fighting skills are nothing spectacular, surely Professor Dumbledore would be much more useful to take with you."

"I don't plan to fight, the situation will be dangerous, the place we will visit will be in the midst of a civil war, but my hope is that we can sneak in and out. Get the photos and get gone. But I won't lie, I mainly want someone there that I can trust because not only do I want someone watching my back, I need someone keeping me focused, I have a lot of bad memories with versions like that and I want someone there to stop me from slipping." She said a haunted look passing across her features.

"I'll need time to prepare... I mean, I can do it, you've done plenty for us, so it seems only fair. Just, you have to give me more information as to what I'm to expect."

"For now, plan your trip." Dumbledore interrupted, "leave it for the start of the Winter Holidays, when the students have left then it will be easier to explain your own disappearance." He ordered and the two nodded their heads. "However, I want to know what your plan is. Your safety is my primary concern, if you cannot show some level of guarantee then I reserve the right to cancel this expedition."

"Understood, I'll be disappearing briefly over the next couple of days, I need to find a couple of experts to speak to them about this, there will be no harm to myself or anyone else while I'm gone though." Elizabeth said as she thought about the Lutece Twins, their appearance had been sporadic outside of the Sea of Lighthouses and she wondered if it was because they were constantly jumping around or if they were doing other stuff and were unable to just stay in one place for too long. The Sea itself acted outside of time and reality, they could be found there and hopefully they would have the answers she needed for the next part. "With that, I have nothing else to ask. If you have no need of me, I would like to speak to Harry and inform him of what has happened here, When I left I kind of tipped off the other Ravenclaws that he was with that there was something different about the two of us."

"So, more people now know of your abilities?" Dumbledore questioned with a small smile.

"The boys of Second Year Ravenclaw have witnessed it and will probably have an understanding from Harry after he slipped up during our conversation, Hermione and Ron know loosely of it though no more than what I've told them after the troll incident. Of the professors, there's you two and the heads of house minus Professor Sprout after the incident at the end of last year and finally Mr and Mrs Malfoy." Elizabeth said, tapping her fingers as she counted through all of the ones that she had spoken to in regard to the chaos. "I believe that's it..." She trailed off and Dumbledore waved it off.

"It was not a secret that would be possibly to keep forever, for now begin your preparations." He said politely and the two left the office, closing the door behind them.

HPCVHPCVHPCV

He had recovered in the hospital, his memories still clouded and confusing as he tried to find the pieces of his memory to pull himself back together.

Meditation had helped but not by much, he had fragments that he could find but they had no connection whatsoever to everything else.

as the doctors continued to examine him and try to help him, he answered what he could, but it was vague, it was slow, memories that he did recall didn't seem to make sense. they felt like they had happened to someone else and not his own and those that he saw weren't even his, at least that is what he felt. A boy with dark hair, a man killing people with a flash of light.

He didn't understand, he needed to remember.

TBC

The plot thickens, doubt is thrown over the party and the truth shall set them free.

I've been on a roll recently, but I have no idea how long this writing spree will continue before I fade away again for a little bit. I'm hoping with how I'm approaching it; I'll be able to keep going. If I do end up taking a break, I will make sure to update my profile with the information when it happens.

For now, I hope you have enjoyed the chapter, I hope to have the next one done at some point. It's looking to be a fun one.

Next Chapter: Duel and Unusual Punishment.