The Vow And It's Consequences

Chapter 14

An Unlikely Trio

If anyone in the wizarding world had seen this particular trio they'd have stopped, did a double take, and then thought they surely were hallucinating. Either that or one in particular was under the imperious or being Poly Juiced as. As it was two of them had Glamour charms on, preventing anyone to see their true identities. One of those people was Severus, who was supposed to be in another country. Dumbledore spoke to too many people for Severus to be able to walk freely without a Glamour. The other had just joined them, and he would never be able to be seen with the witch that was currently going to go with them, to look as he normally would. It killed Lucius to change his appearance, he was a very vain proud man, but we all did things we didn't necessarily like in life. The Witch with them was actually one Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She'd seen all the letters Lucius had written; especially in regards to getting rid of all 'Muggle, and Muggle born' related books removed from Hogwarts. It was an on going battle between Lucius and Albus, one she took no part in.

Still Minerva didn't like him, and she also didn't trust him, but she also trusted Severus' judgement. So she merely pursed her lips and endured the aristocratic's presence. So all three of them were tense, with near scowls upon their features. A funny sight indeed, which made them an extremely unlikely Trio.

"Where to first?" asked Minerva, as they prepared to Apparate away.

"Surrey county Council," said Severus smoothly, before the three adults disappeared from the magical world, and regained their bearings in the Muggle world.

"Lucius you are a lawyer should they ask, I am a police officer, and Minerva, you are a social worker," said Severus, handing over the necessarily credentials for them to be able to pass off being what they were.

Lucius seemed unsurprised by Severus' quick thinking; Minerva on the other hand, was continuously surprised by his actions. How easy it was to forget just how quick Severus had to be, especially to survive the Dark Lord's inner circle for three years. He thought of everything down to the last detail. No doubt Salazar Slytherin would be proud of how cunning and smart his Slytherin was. Although he'd probably be more impressed with Severus' potion abilities.

"How is it going?" asked Severus as they walked towards their destination, their clothes had been re-glamoured, they now had clothes on that suit the part. Lucius had to look away seeing Severus in such a …Muggle attire. That's what their police officers wore? He wouldn't be seen dead in such an outfit, never mind attend work where people knew him with such an outfit on. Although he and Narcissa would surely gotten the use out of the handcuffs.

"I'm in the process of buying the land around Privet Drive, it will be a rather advantageous income, more than I could have predicted. Grunning drills have already signed the paperwork, I now own it. First thing I'm going to do is change the name," said Lucius his lip curled in disgust at such a Muggle name. "Of course Vernon Dursley will quite quickly find himself without a job when I demand all employee's go through a background police check. They will find that Vernon Dursley is very unsuitable for the job, and an embarrassment to the firm."

Minerva's lips unwillingly twitched at the thought of what they were putting the Dursley's through. It was perhaps a better revenge than a quick torture; it was mind games, something Slytherins excelled at apparently. "Police check? Why would that help?"

Severus smirked in vicious, feral satisfaction, "Lucius knows a police officer, who is actually a squib, he bribed him quite handsomely, although he admitted later he'd have gladly gone it when he realized what was going on." he revealed to the cat Animagus. Far too often people got away with things, evil things; they should have been locked up in prison for. Now Vernon Dursley's had all manner of charges against his name. Charges that were always 'mysteriously' dropped. DWI (Driving while intoxicated), disturbing the peace, driving without a licence, stealing a car, resulting in resisting arrest while invading the police. Joy riding, domestic violence with a previous partner before Petunia back in London. Whom she'd taken out a restraining order against. Assault and also assault with a deadly weapon. The people who'd supposedly been 'hurt' by Vernon were all people who were dead now so there was no way to prove the fake reports false. The officer Lucius used, was very good indeed and did his background searches on people before starting.

"I see," said Minerva, hiding her grin behind her hand, glad to see that Harry was truly being avenged. Although she was surprised Lucius would do anything for Harry, he was the reason the Dark Lord was dead after all.

"He is first and foremost a Wizard, nobody deserves that treatment, especially not from disgusting Muggles." said Lucius spitting 'Muggles' with no small amount of disgust. He had nothing against Muggles in general, just the Muggles they were talking about. Otherwise he would have sacked everyone at Grunning's and sold the company in pieces. Then had the entire land he was buying declared private and making the families leave their houses. No he may be somewhat dark, but he wasn't necessarily evil. He did what he had to, to keep his family safe as well as his position. "As Severus' son he has more protection than you'd believe. Not many Death Eaters would want to anger or have Severus coming after them. I know I wouldn't, even Lestrange, wasn't stupid enough to go too far in her taunts knowing just how lethal Severus was at spell casting." finished the blonde seriously.

Minerva blinked, but remained emotionless, at least outwardly. She had known Severus reputation at Hogwarts, but she hadn't thought to think he'd have one amongst the Death Eaters. It didn't surprise her as much as it out to have, to know that the Death Eaters were just as terrified of him as the students (and some teachers) were. She saw Severus was going slightly pink around the face, and suppressed her amusement, Severus reacted to praise as someone reacted to neglect. He did not like it one bit. "We are here? Can we just go in and get this over with?" said Severus wryly; he just wanted to get back to Harry, who was currently sleeping. Hopefully he'd sleep until he got back, the last thing he needed Harry to think was he'd be passed from pillar to post.

"Indeed," said Minerva and Lucius in Unison before a horrified look appeared on Lucius' face.

"Good afternoon, welcome to Surry county council how may I help you?" asked a chirpy receptionist, despite the fact she was confronted with three curled lips. Minerva's was more like a grimace but if you weren't looking hard enough you wouldn't notice.

"I need to speak to whomever is available from Social Services immediately," said Severus, it wasn't hard to imagine him as a police officer, he bled authority from every pore on his body.

"Do you have an appointment?" she asked.

"Would I have asked to speak to someone if I did have an appointment?" asked Severus unable to help himself, sarcasm was rolling off him in waves. He had no tolerance for idiots. Lucius coughed to hide his laughter; meanwhile Minerva had lost what was left of her lips.

"We don't normally see someone without an appointment," said the receptionist.

"Even if it's a matter of life or death?" asked Severus scorn crossing his voice and face.

The receptionist bit her lip, before picking up the phone and began speaking to someone on the other end of it. They could only hear her, but it was enough for them to get the gist of the conversation. "There's someone available to see you now, if you go through those doors, to levels up, corridor C straight along you'll find the waiting area. Mrs. Wilson will be with you as soon as possible."

"Thank you," said Minerva as she passed the others weren't as kind.

"She was an idiot," said Lucius as both men took the stairs two at a time, Minerva slightly behind them.

"That girl was just doing her job," said Minerva, shaking her head. Honestly, Slytherins didn't have a sympathetic bone in their bodies. Eventually they'd walked up the flights of stairs; Minerva wasn't even out of breath. She went up more than two sets of stairs at Hogwarts; she would have much preferred using her Animagus form though like she did at the magical school.

Five minutes they sat in the empty waiting room, as the smell off coffee, tea and other aromas filled the air. You could tell it was lunch time, and it made their stomach rumble loudly. Then a short black hair, blue eyes short woman stepped towards them, her Surrey accent very noticeable. "Hi, I'm Mrs. Wilson," said the married woman, staring at them enquiringly.

"Marion McDonald," said Minerva, shaking her hand, allowing her social services badge to be seen, carrying her fake name.

"Luke Matthew." said Lucius shaking her hand for only a second before withdrawing.

"Samuel Smith," said Severus, shaking her hand.

"It's nice to meet you, now can I ask what this is about?" asked Mrs. Wilson, eying them all wondering why three people in their respective career choices would want to see her.

"I need to find out if any of your social workers were ever called out to investigate Petunia and Vernon Dursley for abuse against Harry Potter." said Minerva doing the talking before the men could become sarcastic.

"Oh," said Mrs. Wilson, coming to the wrong conclusion that Harry Potter had died, and the others were there to investigate. A lawyer, a police officer and another social worker, it made perfect sense to her. "Follow me." she said speeding off in the direction of the office, her heels clicking loudly as she stalked in a way that should have impressed Severus.

"Please take a seat," she said dragging an extra chair over so all three could sit. Once that was done she immediately sat on her seat, and began clicking away on her computer. "We have had thirteen complaints, all of which were immediately dealt with. We immediately gave the Dursley's a surprise visit, but both boys are extremely well looked after."

Severus choked in shocked, twisted, bitter, dark amusement. "Which one of your completely incompetent nitwits visited Privet Drive?"

Mrs. Wilson's jaw dropped at his callous, harsh words, she puffed up, but the look he gave her, that they were all gave her made her pause. Truth be told, she was actually very intimidated by them. She could feel a surge of menace emanating from them. She wanted them to leave, she wanted to go home and stay away for the next week or so. Swallowing deeply feeling crazy for thinking it, she typed away on her compute again.

"There have been two social workers visiting, Tara Digby and Olive Halliwell. Can I ask the reason behind this visit? Will it involve the legal department?" she asked.

"That depends," said Lucius smoothly, "We will need to speak to them individually and immediately, and we don't want to accuse anyone of collaborating answers now do we?"

"Of course not," she replied knowing she didn't have a choice. "You can use this room, and I'll go retrieve them right now."

"I'll come with you dear," said Minerva, standing up. Not giving her room to argue both left to collect the two other Social Workers.

"If he's done anything I'll kill him," hissed Severus to Lucius his body radiating fury.

Lucius didn't need to ask, who the 'He' was that Severus was referring to. Dumbledore. The thought of Harry being 'extremely well looked after' was stretching it beyond expansion. Underweight, but otherwise doing fine, would have been easier to accept. No there was something going on, someone had done something. Severus knew it, no social worker, who was trained to spot abuse, would have left Harry in that house. He'd saw the child for a matter of seconds and saw the abuse right away. He was no way more experienced than the Social workers.

"This is Tara Digby," said Mrs. Wilson coming back in with Minerva McGonagall. A woman she thought was named Marion McDonald. The tall black woman walked in confidently, sitting down, laying her bag beside the chair. Her red high heels tapping impatiently as she waited for them to speak. She seemed completely un-intimidated by the three surrounding her. Whether she'd remain that way…we would just have to wait and see.

sorry its not longer I'm afraid this is all the time I have to write this one for. So will Dumbledore have interfered? or will the Dursley's have been bribing them to ignore it? or perhaps charming them so much they didn't think for a second the two could harm anything least of all family? its just a question of people being bribed or Dumbledore even worse? even im unsure of which one to use :D guess ill find out next chapter ;) R&R PLEASE!