Mid-morning found Harry playing chess with Ted Tonks. Nymphadora was in the kitchen with her mother making biscuits. Or rather trying, Harry thought as another crash sounded followed by her apologies again. They'd been at it for an hour already and he had counted five crashes so far.
"How long does it take her to make biscuits?" Harry asked as he moved his bishop.
"Depends on how many accidents she has." Ted chuckled and moved his knight to take a pawn that had been left open.
Harry sighed at the loss of another piece before he spoke again, "Why is she so clumsy?"
"Small spontaneous changes." Ted shrugged, "That's my pet theory any way. I think that her body is constantly in flux and maybe one of her legs gets a quarter inch shorter or longer without her knowing, therefore her stride gets thrown off."
"I suppose that's as good a theory as any." Harry cringed with the sixth crash, "I think we'll be having several games of chess before we get biscuits."
"I think you're right." Ted quirked an eyebrow as a white cloud made its way under the kitchen door, "It may be afternoon tea."
Harry lost that game and they set up for another. Before they could begin Kingsley arrived. Ted let him in the house and the seventh crash made Kingsley look at them in confusion.
"Andy and Dora are cooking." Ted explained in answer to the look.
"I see." Kingsley stepped farther from the kitchen door, "Is it safe for you two to stay?"
"I was thinking of going out for a walk just in case." Ted grinned.
"Do you mind if I borrow Harry for a couple hours?" Kingsley asked.
"Do you want to be included in the lunch plans?" Ted asked.
"What is she cooking?" he asked dubiously.
"Biscuits." Harry answered, "Lunch is safe."
"Don't ruin my fun Harry." Ted gave him a playful punch.
"Sorry." Harry grinned and followed after the auror. Once they were out of the house and at the gate he asked, "Where are we going?"
"Gringotts." He answered, "They should be back by now."
"They have the ring?" he asked.
"They went after it." Kingsley acknowledged, "I got a patronus from Bill Weasley a few minutes ago."
"Excellent." Harry grabbed his arm ready to be apparated.
"We are also meeting with Madam Bones today." Kingsley sighed.
"Why?" Harry asked.
"We can't go after Malfoy without a really good reason." He replied.
"I'll try to find a good one then." Harry decided.
Landing in the alley near the Leaky they quickly made their way to the bank. They were met by goblins and taken directly back to the same chamber as before. Moody was with the team and they were waiting on the two of them. Kingsley moved off to the table to kill the horcrux while Harry went to the protective area by Bill and Moody.
"How did it go?" Harry asked.
"Better than I expected." Moody grinned savagely, "No injuries."
***Flashback***
"What a dump." One of the curse breakers commented.
"No chatter." Another admonished him, "Auror Moody what do you see?"
"Muggle repelling ward, animal repelling ward…" Moody continued listing wards and spells as they came to them.
The team dismantled each one and recorded it in a ledger they were keeping. The name of the curse and the breaker was entered so that each person was given credit for their work.
"Blood curdling curse on the door." Moody pointed out, "As well as a skinning curse and an entrails expeller. Just inside the door is a very dark cutting curse, don't remember the name."
It continued like that inch by inch through the house. The path of curses led directly to the room that Harry had said the horcrux was in and right up to the spot that they needed to dig.
"He gave me a bleeding path." Moody huffed, "He would have been much better off to scatter the curses around. Instead I get a path directly to it."
"Thank Merlin for small favors." Bill chuckled at him, "I'm guessing he put the worst on the hiding spot."
"Nay lad." Moody grinned, "Just another entrails expeller. The worst one is on the item itself. It's got that nasty withering curse, the one that slowly destroys your body and your core. Touch that and in six weeks you'll look and feel like one of your two-thousand-year-old mummies."
"Well good." Bill frowned, "Nothing too difficult then."
His sarcasm wasn't lost on any of them. This curse was notoriously difficult to remove. Three of them began to work on it as it was unearthed.
"Wait!" Bill called, "I feel a compulsion trying to take hold."
"I've got it." Moody swished his wand.
"Thank you, it was a strong one." Bill wiped the sweat from his face.
"I couldn't see if for the withering curse." Moody huffed, "Double and triple layers are very difficult to see, it's why I don't look away."
Once the ring was free of curses Bill handed it to Moody, "If you ever want to get away from England for a while, we could use you in Egypt."
"I hate sand." Moody led the way from the shack, "It irritates my good eye."
*** end flashback ***
"Which is your good eye?" Harry asked with a grin.
"The magic one of course." Bill answered instead of Moody.
"Thanks for your help today." Harry said as he grinned up at the tall Weasley.
"No problem." He grinned back.
"I know you have to be wondering…" Harry started.
"Ron told me he would explain as much as he can at a later, less intense time." Bill waved him off.
"You realize that may be years away?" he asked.
"I am aware." Bill nodded.
Bill left to join back up with the rest of his team after the Horcrux was destroyed and the ring sent to Harry's vault. Harry was taken with Moody and Kingsley as they made their way out of the bank. Before they left for the ministry Moody disillusioned Harry and had him keep a hold on the sleeve of his auror robes so he'd always know where the boy was. Once they made it into the ministry, they went directly to Madam Bones' office.
"What do you two want now?" she asked. The last time they had asked for approval to storm Malfoy manor. Without considerable proof there was no way she could grant that.
"We've brought our proof." Moody tapped Harry on the head and he appeared before the woman.
"A child is your proof?" she asked sardonically.
"This isn't just any child." Kingsley started.
"No, it's Harry Potter who is supposed to be hidden." She glared at the two men.
"But I was tired of hiding." Harry sat in a seat in front of her desk, "I can give you quite a lot of information but I need an unbreakable vow to protect a few secrets."
"I don't think you know what you're asking." She turned her glare on him.
Harry had been glared at by Severus Snape for years and hers needed to be kicked up a few notches to even reach the bottom of his scale. Harry gave her a smile back.
"I know exactly what I'm asking." Harry began.
"He does." Moody grumbled.
"He does?" she looked at the auror, "What are you vowed to do?"
"I can't tell Dumbledore about what we're doing." Moody shrugged, "With good reason."
"You won't ask me to break any laws." She stated emphatically.
"I will not." Harry assured her, "I will ask you not to discuss my origins or my task."
"Your task?" she asked.
All three nodded and she sighed, "How am I to help if I can't talk about it?"
"You won't need to talk about the task." Harry smiled again.
After her vow was thrashed out and given, she sat back in her chair, "Ok let's have it."
"You remember when the Weasley boys went missing?" Kingsley began.
Between the three of them they related the story of the last seventeen days of Harry's life. He had to add a few back stories from his life before the time travel in order to clarify a few points.
"Would bribing, threatening and black mailing people work?" Harry asked when they were finished.
"Not for a search of his home." Amelia sighed, "We need to see him in possession of a dark artifact of some kind, preferably in his home."
"I suppose it doesn't count that I saw him with a horcrux does it?" Harry asked with a sigh.
"I would not use it if you were alone with him." She shook her head, "Of course if you have a memory of it with more people so no one would know who provided the information it would be ok."
"How about a memory of him talking with Voldemort?" Harry asked but went on without waiting as another idea occurred to him, "Or better yet one of him passing an illegal potion to another death eater?"
"He did that in front of you?" she asked.
"No." Harry grinned, "But my connection to Voldemort let me watch it happen. I don't know how it will show in a pensieve though since it isn't my memory."
"Let's find out." She turned and opened a cabinet.
Harry stood, moved to the pensieve and pulled out the memory. All four of them stuck a finger into the bowl and watched the memory. They saw and heard Malfoy hand an illegal potion to Crabbe, they were obviously in Malfoy manor.
"How did you see this?" Madeye asked as the two men in the memory continued to converse.
"The snake under the table is Voldemort's familiar." Harry pointed out, "He hasn't been made into a horcrux yet in this time."
"That is a large snake." Kingsley observed after his initial jump at seeing it.
"How far into the future did this occur?" Amelia asked.
"About five years." Harry grinned, "And the best part about this is they'll both think the other created the memory to get them."
"We can arrest both of them with this." Moody agreed, "Keep them in separate cells and they'll likely rat the other out for everything they've ever done."
After they left the pensieve Amelia began asking more questions, "What can you tell me about the manor or where things are kept?"
"Not much, I'm afraid." Harry offered, "I was in the holding cells that you get to through a door hidden in the entry way, "I'm sure there are many other secret passageways and hidden doors. I heard Draco brag once that they had the biggest library of any pureblood family but only about half was for viewing, the rest was hidden."
"I wonder what we can get the kid to tell us." Moody scratched his chin.
"Well if you tell the elf named Dobby that Harry Potter sent you, he'll help all he can." Harry grinned, "I'd also like the chance to buy him from them."
"I'll see what we can do." Amelia agreed.