A/n: I had this mostly written before the healer chapter so you get it fairly quickly. Don't bank on getting multiple chapters from me in a day as musey isn't usually that generous.
Enjoy!
*+ovo+*
Voldemort frowned over his paperwork before glancing towards where his two panthers were. Harry and Severus were both curled up reading, having taken the prescribed potions and eaten lunch with him not more than two hours ago. He would have to let Severus brew what other potions were needed for the three of them before the day was over but it was also clear they all needed rest. The healer from the day before had provided the first couple of doses out of a special bag linked to the potions storage room that Gringotts maintained for its healers.
The pair wasn't going anywhere and Voldemort was clearly never reassigning Severus unless absolutely necessary. Harry was going to need the protection that having both older wizards nearby and on his side would provide. Once the medical decree reached the rest of the school staff there was going to be a nasty uproar. He would need to get Severus to agree to housing Harry in his teachers quarters during that time. As he was going to go to Harry at times instead of always making Harry come to him to keep their bond fresh it would also be easier to arrive and leave through Severus' floo. Hopefully, he could talk the imp into getting a resort into Slytherin but he wasn't banking on it unless the entire school went insane and turned on his horcrux. Then too the children of his minions could help keep Harry safe but he would have to get them on at least speaking terms.
"~Stop fretting,~" Nagini hissed at her first hatchling, content as she lounged on the heated stones in front of the fire.
"~I have to assume that I can't keep them locked up,~" Voldemort explained with a sigh. "~The green-eyed imp is far too good at escaping things to make it work. Then too he needs to finish his learning before things get too dangerous. I can argue the he needs to be fully healthy before letting him out but those arguments will only get his compliance for so long. He still doesn't trust me and rightfully so. Until I can get him to feel safe around me and willingly accept my authority I have to assume that the old goat and his people will get to him. Even without him holding a piece of my soul... loosing Harry, willingly or not, will be devastating to say nothing of what it could do to Harry himself. I would love to just lock him away in safety but it just wont work. I have to sort out something else before we have to make an appearance outside the defenses of these walls. It wont be long before Madam Bones finds out that I was telling the truth and might demand a meeting or get that official meeting under truce magics set up. Both of which they will have to attend.~"
"~My presence will not help unless I am hidden in a small form in the robes of one of them,~" Nagini concluded, clearly displeased. "~I will not suffer another serpent in our nest until I take a mate. It is a pity you cannot make their skin have a fast strike to bring them back to the nest or at least track them if things go wrong.~"
"~Fast strike...? Oh, a transport spell or a speed enhancer of some kind and tracking spells, embedded in the skin... Severus has one after a fashion but it changed when we claimed them. Both have, on their arms, a blue shield to mark me and their status with me as well as the two panther tattoos to mark each other and their own status. It almost completely erased the magics in the Dark Mark and ritual scar that was there before the claiming. No, Nagini, I can't do that,~" Voldemort explained after verbally working out what she had meant. "~There isn't time and re-marking them both with my Dark Mark would be... counter productive even if I moved its location. I would need to rework the entire mark and we likely wont have the time. I can give them something to wear always instead but getting them to wear it might be... tricky.~"
"~Panther Hatchlings, you will both wear the thing that my Tom will give you to help keep you safe,~" Nagini just flatly ordered the pair who were pretending not to eavesdrop.
"Mine will have to be an anklet or something that I can slip under my robes," Severus said quietly. He wasn't going to argue the point and he would really prefer not to get another tattoo without a long discussion involved.
"Mine too," Harry grimaced. "Rings always seemed to get in the way from how everyone who has them fumbles in class and people will notice if I start wearing stuff. I never had them before and the tattoos are going to be hard enough to explain."
"Anklet and arm bands? Necklaces?" Voldemort mused aloud. "I will have to think on it. For now if we need to attend such a meeting before I can get a proper one commissioned I will give you something before we leave the manor. We will leave drastic things such as embedded portkeys and tattoos for future discussion and as strictly emergency measures."
The two other wizards nodded before going back to their books. The enforced rest was already doing them both good. Hopefully, they would be safe should such an emergency meeting be arranged. Voldemort wasn't going to count on it though and the pair would not be leaving his side if they did have to attend such a meeting.
Time would tell. Time would tell.
*+ovo+*
Three days after the Hogsmeade hostage incident...
Amelia Bones could not believe what she was hearing. Not only did Fudge continue to insist that the Dark Lord didn't exist but he wanted the man's captives from the Hogsmeade incident legally declared traitors! Despite the ample evidence of the raid over the weekend and the submitted certified health checks on both Potter and Snape, which she had insisted on. Thankfully, the bastard couldn't unilaterally declare the pair as traitors for protecting the rescued students and staff members of Hogwarts and the few captured villagers.
On top of that those same health checks showed a disturbing health trend in the pair any way that had her opening up investigations on where exactly they had received the majority of certain injuries. She was just grateful (grateful to the Dark Lord of all people!) that a full in depth health history had been insisted on for the report. She was also suddenly very happy that Child Abuse and Child Neglect had no statute of limitations in the Wizarding World. The old wounds recorded on these two captive wizards' health histories made her sick. It was just too bad that Snape's parents were already dead and Dumbledore was so fiercely protecting whoever Potter had been living with. She couldn't issue the warrant without names after all. It made her oddly glad for the medical declaration that officially transferred Potter's custody over to the Dark Lord and demanded frequent contact between the two. She may not be a trained healer but this wasn't the first time that magic manifested if a frankly weird fashion. Custody changes under the heading of magic gone strange were perfectly legal, thankfully.
"Madam Bones! The muggle books you asked us to pick up and check through!" one of her Aurors said breathlessly as he rushed up to her in the halls of the Ministry on her way to the cafeteria for lunch.
"What about them?" Amelia asked with dread, her heart sinking at the look of horror on the Auror's face.
"Ma'am, whoever told you what to look for... well they were right," the Auror stuttered out.
Amelia closed her eyes in dismay and resignation. Taking a deep breath she thought hard about her options. She especially had to contend with the legal fact that the only thing she could actually charge the, now certifiably sane, Dark Lord with was the actual raid she had negotiated over. This... was going to be a nightmare.
"I want every Auror and Trainee not on a priority case to gather the Wizengamot Members, with their heirs if possible, and all Department heads are to report to the Wizengamot Chambers without delay. We have a bigger problem than a Dark Lord and they need to see the report now! And find out where the hell Dumbledore got to!" Amelia ordered flatly. "He wasn't at the school when this mess kicked off and McGonagall could only tell me that he was off on ICW (International Confederation of Wizards) business! As the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot I want him here yesterday, damn it!"
The Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement (DMLE) didn't bother to lower her voice as she snapped out orders. As a result her voice echoed down the corridor into sudden, brief, silence before a cacophony exploded as people scrambled to obey and the news raced down the Ministry gossip lines. She didn't care as long as the people she had designated showed up to hear the full report. Voldemort was right, damn him!
The other frightening thing? Voldemort had included a sanity certificate with a semi-complete explanation on the fact that he had been technically insane before graduating Hogwarts, insanity which was now largely fixed. Included in the package of official documents for her was a packet of emergency plans that could be used if things exploded. Plans, in some cases, that featured him and Potter prominently if they could get the idiots playing at lies and backstabbing that called themselves politicians to cooperate.
As much as Amelia hated the Dark Lord's "test" of their society, started during his insane but brilliant phase, she could already tell they would need him and his people to fix this or possibly prepare for a real war. Hopefully they had the time to try.
"Parkins! Get the Goblin representative and contact the Centaur representative! Tell them and the Vampire Council we need them here asap! They are going to want to hear this. Michels! Issue a missive to all registered magical family heads informing them of a discovered threat to their family and tell them about the emergency meeting. If they can get here then they need to be here and if they can't they need to show up within 48 hours to hear the record. People, we are on a Code Split Fate! As of now the entire Ministry is on Emergency Duty with a security lock level Red 3. Follow your department's plan for it and when done report to the Emergency Department for temporary reassignment as needed!" Amelia barked out at various people. She was moving down the hall towards her office and already knew that calling an emergency meeting like this was going to turn into a royal clusterfuck.
"As much as this is going to screw me over... do you want me to contact the Dark Lord?" Auror John Dwalish offered hesitantly.
Amelia closed her eyes, fending off a headache, and sighed before turning on her Senior Auror and answering him flatly, a honed edge of steel in her voice and fury shining in her eyes. "You are on probation... and removed from any investigation that the Dark Lord or his people are a part of. Cases which you will report on if you happen to be placed in connection with any of them as a conflict of interest. As to notifying him... Yes, tell him I need him here with Potter and Snape but that I can not promise safe passage because of Fudge and Dumbledore. So I recommend seeing to his own security. I also politely request that if we find our groups at odds that he stick to non-lethal so that I have a chance at arguing for a future meeting with safe passage. This is going to be the ultimate test for this department to know if he's serious about those emergency plans he sent me to look at and serious about fixing all of this."
"If we, the dark faction, prove that we are?" Dwalish asked cautiously.
"Then we talk," Amelia said grimly. "There are a great many laws on the books that aren't getting enforced like they should be. The entire department might just have to... brush up on those laws. Hell, most of the objection we have with the dark faction is the killing, torture, and continued attempts at genocide and/or enslavement! If those weren't there we'd be going after Dumbledore's little club for how much damage they tend to do. He's just the only person who has proven themselves able to fight your Lord to a draw!"
"That's... not entirely true. Potter can. Yeah, he's not fully trained and its mostly a scramble on his part but whatever happens he always manages to stop the Dark Lord even when his sanity was... questionable. Convince Potter to help keep the Dark Lord from doing something extreme and even if he can't talk him out of it he has a... knack for ruining whatever the plan was with little loss of life if any. Its not often talked about," Dwalish explained carefully, staring pointedly at a wall. Explaining all of this was going to get him crucioed without question but it was a chance he had to take! "We still haven't gotten solid details on those incidents but there is a quiet suspicion among the ranks that whatever he does it's what is responsible for the Dark Lord's mind beginning to heal. The Dark Lord wasn't sane at the end of the last war and we couldn't fix it. The magics in the loyalty oath stopped us from stopping him and mostly kept our mouths shut. Frankly, I'm surprised it hasn't killed me for saying what I have."
"Because it falls under trying to get an ally you idiot," Lucius Malfoy snarled as he stalked up and smacked the chatty Auror. "He still hasn't convinced Potter to stick around and this could help with that. You are lucky the magics consider neutralizing Potter as a threat and at least getting him neutral overall to be more important than spilling unconfirmed suspicions from among the rank and file! Besides, the healer confirmed his current sanity. Something which Madam Bones was sent a certificate as proof that he was checked and cleared."
"You are being awfully open about this," Amelia observed guardedly.
"I was tried and found innocent but that doesn't mean the magics aren't still present. There is, after all, a reason we tend to fight so viciously not to answer questions regardless of when we took the mark or why," Lucius pointed out dryly. He would not actively admit to being in contact with the Dark Lord but then he didn't really need to. Backroom politics aside he had always been a major recruiter and the political head of their faction, the public face. Besides, they had no proof he had done anything illegal and thus couldn't arrest or charge him for it. Then too the Dark Mark did have a few very lethal fail safes.
Madam Bones glared but grudgingly conceded the point. She really wanted an excuse to cuff him and dose him with veritaserum. A shout calling her name brought her back to the disaster at hand. Save the world first then see about getting some truth serum into Malfoy. Priorities people, priorities.
*+ovo+*
A/n: Alright, next step... should we go with the meeting, inform Dumbles of the disastrous (to him) situation, watch the Ministry scramble, or see what the goblins are up to?