Harry and Merope to the Rescue - Chapter 21
Disclaimer:
I don't own the HP universe, unfortunately.
Gringotts, Morning of Friday, December 11, 1981:
Harry was waiting in a secure conference room for Kruglast. He had arrived at Gringotts immediately after he finished breakfast and was promptly escorted to this current location and he had been waiting for about five minutes now. So as he waited, he pondered what could have been so urgent and if it was in any relation to the horcrux from the Lestrange vault that they had destroyed or not.
Finally, after having been waiting now for a total of ten minutes, Kruglast burst into the room, as if he had been running throughout all the tunnels in Gringotts just to get here as quickly as possible, so he had to catch his breath a moment before he could speak. After a brief moment, he said, "My apologies for keeping you waiting, I was in the middle of an unrelated crisis that needed immediate solving."
Harry inclined his head and said, "No apologies necessary, I don't have any immediate plans that have to be taken care of today. Although, I do intend to visit with Sirius, at some point, as I have been in communication with Walburga Black and I will be representing him in his trial. In order to do that, I'll need to physically be seen coming and going from the Ministry, making it appear as if I'm doing research for the case. Although, that wouldn't exactly be a bad idea, just in case I find more information that what I was already aware of. Speaking of Sirius, are you aware of any Last Will and Testament that may have been left by James and/or Lily?
"In my original timeline, I never viewed my parents' Will, and for one reason or another it never crossed my mind that I should demand the right to view it. Sirius had already been dead for a few years by the time I was of age, so any information left in the Will would not have had any bearing on his freedom. I do wonder if perhaps their Will would have shown who the real secret keeper was, in case their death could be linked to the secret being leaked."
Kruglast began to speak and then paused, eyebrows furrowed in thought. "I have no memory of a Last Will and Testament, that is something I will need to research. I feel as if there is something there, but out of my memory's grasp."
Harry leaned forward in concern, "Is it possible you were obliviated?" he asked.
Kruglast's eyes widened a moment before his surprise was replaced by a look of rage. He had to take a few moments to get his emotions back under control before he said very carefully, "I believe you have reached the right conclusion."
Harry nodded and remained silent for a moment as he thought. "If you trust me to do it, I can probably free your memory, but it's not something I've actually done before, it's just something that my intuition tells me that I have the ability to do. I understand if you would rather not chance it, but I just wanted to give you the option, should you wish it."
Kruglast shook his head in the negative and said, "Goblins have a method for memory retrieval, and while I thank you for the offer, I would rather utilize the method that I am familiar with."
Harry nodded in understanding and asked, "Who would have known that you were the Potter Account Manager? How widely known throughout the wizarding community would that knowledge have been, like a matter of public records or such?"
Kruglast paused in thought and said, "The answer to the first question seems to be part of my blocked memory. In answer to the second one, unless the Potters themselves had told someone else that I was their account manager, then it should have remained confidential. Our policy is to keep the accounts and accounts managers strictly confidential, to only be known by the family of said account."
Harry was silent for a moment while he thought about the situation further, then he asked, "Assuming that someone was a very skilled Legilimens, would they have been able to pluck it out of the head of someone that is not a skilled Occlumens?"
Kruglast thought for a moment and said, "Most definitely." After some additional thought, he said, "It sounds like you suspect someone."
Harry nodded and said, "Many of my problems in my original timeline can be linked back to Dumbledore. And while Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Severus Snape are the only wizards I'm aware of that are well-versed in both of those mind arts, Dumbledore is the one with the most motive to have done something like this. It would have prevented the Potter's Will from being read - if it existed - so that it couldn't be used to free Sirius if it, in fact, had exonerating evidence."
Kruglast nodded and said, "I'll see if my memories can corroborate your theory after I have had them restored."
Harry nodded and asked, "Now that we've gone as far as we can on that topic for the moment, what was it that you needed to see me about?"
Kruglast sighed and said, "Yes, of course." He then appeared to be slightly hesitant and cleared his throat. Harry made an encouraging gesture and Kruglast finally asked, "How sure are you that you have destroyed all of the remaining horcruxes?"
Harry thought over the question a moment to try to interpret what was not being said, then responded, "Unless he made an additional one here before he was vanquished, which would be another difference than what happened in my original timeline, then I've cleansed and/or destroyed all of the ones he made, other than the one the was stored here at Gringotts."
Kruglast scratched his chin and cleared his throat and then said, "Well, our curse breakers have indicated that there were no signs that the destruction of the cup actually destroyed He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, which led us to believe that he made possibly one additional horcrux."
Harry nodded in thought and asked, "If you don't mind me asking, what day did you cleanse the item?"
"Wednesday, December 9, 1981, was the day that our curse breakers went through their rituals to destroy it." Kruglast answered.
Nodding, Harry said, "And I destroyed and/or cleansed all the horcruxes I was aware of on the morning of Monday, December 7, 1981."
Kruglast looked at Harry seriously and said, "So ours should have been the last one, but our curse breakers did not see the telltale sign that he was completely destroyed, so he may have one more."
Instead of responding directly to that statement, Harry murmured in thought, "I remember him telling me himself that he possessed many small animals in order to survive in his non-state of being." Then louder, Harry asked him, "Do you think it's possible that he's possibly only still alive because he is currently possessing an animal, but will dissipate the moment he attempts to possess the next one when said animal dies?"
"I will admit, that is not something that I had considered." Kruglast said.
Harry added, "The only other explanation I can think of is that he turned his pet snake, Nagni, into a horcrux much earlier than was originally thought, and he has been possessing her rather than other small animals. After having turned her into a horcrux in my previous time, she was magically protected in such a way that his possessing her would not cause her harm.
"If he did go straight to possessing Nagini, instead of small animals as he did in my own timeline, then that would be another notable difference between here and where I'm originally from."
Kruglast nodded his head in thought. "Yes," he said, "that could also be a possibility."
Harry said, "If he does find a way back, he won't have much of an army, because all of the free ones have already been neutralized and without them, he will be unable to free those in Azkaban." Kruglast nodded, remembering what Harry told him on his first visit to Gringotts at their first meeting.
Tilting his head in thought, Harry added, "Just as a precaution, I should probably make another visit to Azkaban and add something to their dark marks that will strip them of their life, should they ever leave the wards of Azkaban." Kruglast nodded in agreement to that, it sounded like an excellent idea to him. To himself, Harry thought he should probably do something about the food he had left for Sirius at Azkaban as well.
"Either way," Harry said, "if Voldemort does manage to come back, I'll be ready for him and he won't have the chance to inflict the damage that he did in my past."
Noticing it was nearing lunchtime, Harry thanked Kruglast for his time and requested that he be owled as soon as he was able to retrieve his memories and find out about the Potter's Will, then he said his goodbyes and returned to the island.
Afternoon at the Ministry:
After a brief lunch on the island with his family, and after promising Moony he would be back well before it was time for the full moon as assurance to Moony that he would keep everyone safe, Harry made his way to the Ministry.
He had attempted to tame his hair the best he could, but of course with it being Potter hair, there wasn't much he could do with it. Perhaps one of these days he would actually try to use the potion his grandfather invented just for this sort of thing, but he was so used to the way his hair was after so many years that trying out the potion was always an afterthought.
He had chosen to wear one of his more formal robes, mainly so that no one at the Ministry would think it acceptable to talk down to him. While he disliked having to play the part of a pureblood, the fact of the matter was that he needed to speak the language of the purebloods in order to be taken seriously and heard. The fact that a war based on the circumstances of one's birth had just finished, it still hadn't changed the way anyone thought or behaved, they just went back to business as usual and ignored all the underlying issues where it all stemmed from.
He knew he was going to have a more difficult time working clearing this current wizarding timeline of all of their prejudices than he and Merope had in the timeline they most recently experienced, because this world would have experienced both Grindelwald and Voldemort, leaving more time for all of the hatred and prejudice to build up and fester.
In the last timeline with Grindelwald, it was easy to help make the changes that were needed, but he didn't think he was going to be able to apply the same methods here as he had there. It was definitely a situation that was going to require much more thought and planning, and a lot less flying by the seat of the pants as different situations cropped up.
Harry noticed, as he continued his journey through the atrium towards the wand weighing station, that he was receiving quite a bit of attention from the other visitors all spread out in small groups all around, although the attention had not yet reached the levels of complete silence or increased chatter. Harry kept his focus forward and continued his course towards the wand weighing station to get checked in and visit with Sirius first, before making contact with Mad-Eye in order to request copies of the available evidence to review, etc.
Upon reaching his destination, the clerk asked in a bored tone what his name was, without looking up, to which he responded, "Hadrian Potter." Which caused the clerk to jerk himself out of boredom immediately. Harry continued, "I'm here to see Auror Moody regarding a case that he is currently working on. I'll wait here until he's available to come escort me."
The clerk nodded enthusiastically and said, "Yes, sir! Right away, sir!"
After a few moments, Harry heard the telltale sign of Mad-Eye's wooden peg leg coming down the hall, followed shortly by the sound of a demanding voice saying, "I will not be silenced, my son went missing last Saturday and today the family tapestry shows him to be dead, and I demand that the aurors make this their priority."
Harry thought to himself that Lucius lasted a lot longer than he expected he would, and then he tuned back into Malfoy's ranting, "If Crouch refuses to listen to me, I'll have him fired and replaced with someone who will!"
Moody responded with, "I'll be sure to pass your message along, but as it is, your son is not the only one missing Mr. Malfoy, and probably not the only one having died while being missing. The auror force has been stretched thin due to the recent war and we haven't been able to begin the process of recruiting and training in order to replace those missing from our ranks.
"You'll just have to be satisfied that we are doing everything we can, with the limited amount of resources that we have. And unless you're willing to vote in the Wizengamot in order to increase our budget, which would speed up the hiring and training process, then you're just going to have to be patient with us while we work on everything that is currently on our collective plates."
Nodding towards Harry, Moody said, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have another visitor I need to escort. Have a good day, Mr. Malfoy."
Abraxas Malfoy looked at Harry and started to sneer, but held himself in check when he saw the person Moody was nodding at appeared to be someone of equal stature to himself, though he looked suspiciously like a Potter, he didn't know there were any more Potters. So instead of sneering, he nodded at Moody sharply and swept away and out of the atrium.
Turning his attention to Harry, Moody said, "Well, Mr. Potter, what is it that I can help you with this afternoon? Has Dumbledore attempted to accost you in the middle of Diagon Alley again?"
Harry chuckled in amusement and said, "No, Auror Moody, I haven't seen him since the incident where you and I met." Looking around, Harry said, "I'd rather speak more privately to you about the matter for which I'm here, as I believe there is a certain individual that is being quietly held in a certain cell, while a certain trial is being scheduled."
Upon hearing that information, Moody looked sharply at Harry, nodded, then led him to the privacy of his cubicle in the DMLE. When they entered the space, Moody activated the strongest privacy wards he had installed, then invited Harry to explain how he knew about Sirius Black.
"Well, Auror Moody," Harry said, "I've been privately investigating the death of my cousins the last few days, and made some startling deductions during that brief amount of time that led me to believe Sirius Black to be innocent. I've been in communication with one Remus Lupin, and was able to view copies of photographs and letters that seemed to back up my theory.
"Following my interviews with Mr. Lupin, I became acquainted with the mother of Sirius Black, while I was following up a few leads. After we spoke, she requested that I defend her son in his trial. She was able to provide me with the copies she had procured from the Ministry already regarding the lack of a trial, which further strengthened my theory that Sirius Black was innocent. So I agreed to investigate the case and represent him for his trial, although I am hopeful to find evidence that will have the entire case dismissed and have the need for a trial resolved.
"So while I'm here to see him, I'm also here to request copies of any evidence that you may have collected during your investigations that were not placed in the files provided to Mrs. Black."
"Well, Mr. Potter," Moody said, "I can tell you most definitely that you have my attention. You sound as if you have auror experience. Would you be interested in working for us here at the Ministry? We are rather short staffed at the moment, due to the war and all, and could really use the help of someone with experience and would not require any training."
"As a matter of fact, I do have auror training and experience, but I will have to graciously decline your invitation, as I don't plan to be in Britain long term. My wife and I moved back because the war was over, but after pretty much being accosted by the revered Headmaster Dumbledore in the middle of Diagon Alley, we have decided to raise our son elsewhere. You see, after meeting Dumbledore that day in Diagon Alley, we decided that we most definitely didn't want him to have any sort of influence over our son as the Headmaster of Hogwarts.
"Since I began investigating this case, I have been toying with the idea of freelance investigating, which I haven't suggested to my wife yet. If I do decide to go that route, and while we are still staying here, I would be more than happy to form a contract of sorts with your department in order to help with the caseload that being short staffed makes the DMLE ill equipped to pursue."
Moody nodded and said, "Yes, even that would be helpful. I'll speak to the head of our department about that, and expect to hear back from you if that is the route you decide you want to go. We currently have a large missing persons caseload, some of which are remnants of the war, but some have happened since the war. We just don't have enough aurors to track them all down at this time."
Harry nodded in understanding, coming up with a quick plan in his head of how he can solve the case of the missing DEs without implicating himself. After a quick moment, he had a workable idea that he would implement later, if the Ministry did decide to put him on the case after starting up his investigation services. "I'll be sure to let you know as soon as I've spoken it over with my wife and made a final decision."
Moody nodded in agreement and the two spoke back and forth about their findings of their individual investigations. When Harry mentioned that he was waiting to hear back from Gringotts about whether the Potters had left a Last Will and Testament, Moody said, "The Wizengamot sealed that, citing protection for the Boy-Who-Lived because it listed who was supposed to take custody of him." Harry noticed Moody failed to mention that the BWL was currently missing.
Harry shook his head and said, "They don't have the legal right to keep it from me, I'm a Potter and I have the right to ask for a reading of my cousins' Will. I am not against having it sealed from the general public; however, it is my belief that the Potters would have included who their true secret keeper was in their Will, should they have died while living under the fidelius charm, that way they could prove who would have been the true betrayer.
"So whoever had the Will sealed, would have seen that information there and they would have known right away that Sirius Black was innocent of the charges and would have been released immediately. So whoever ordered that Will to be sealed is part of the conspiracy to keep Sirius from getting a trial."
Moody stared at Harry in contemplation for a long moment and asked, "How sure are you that their Will states that information?"
Harry said, "Based on the information I've gathered and reviewed, and based on how intelligent the Potters were purported to have been, I am 98 percent sure that they would have included that information in their Will."
Moody nodded in thought and said, "I certainly hope that you do open up a freelance investigation service. We could do with more wizards like you who are able to think for themselves and put together the clues. Dumbledore is the Chief Warlock and he was the one who instigated the sealing of the Will, no one ever had access to it." Moody thought another moment and decided to add, "He was already at the top of my list of suspects due to his behavior about other things."
Harry nodded in understanding. "With just my brief interaction with him, I could tell that he tries to hide a lot behind his grandfatherly persona. He was entirely too interested in my identity as a Potter to have been as innocent as he claimed."
Moody nodded, clearly impressed with Harry's assessment. When Harry's stomach started growling, they realized it was well past tea time and very nearly supper time. Harry said, "Well, I did intend to make a brief visit with Sirius this afternoon, but I promised Remus that I would be back before the full moon, as I need to escort him to the place I have warded specially for him, so if you'll just pass on the message to Sirius that I'm taking over the defense of his case, I would appreciate it."
Moody nodded in agreement, shook Harry's hand, dropped the wards and then escorted Harry back to the atrium where he made his way to the exit and apparated back home to the island.