Author's Note: Blargh! Edits...need more edits! *Said in a Zombie like-groan*

Amelia sat with a thump, causing her chair to drift slightly backwards on its casters, and let out an explosive breath. In a mostly-thankless job that didn't have a lot of good days, today was turning out pretty well actually.

They'd managed to track down the source of the security breach fairly efficiently, in part due to the incompetence of corrupt officials. Something which the Wizarding media, for reasons Amelia couldn't fathom, described as shocking. As though they weren't well aware that Umbridge was crooked as a corkscrew and hadn't been among the many to benefit from it? It was a fairly inelegant attempt on their part to distance themselves from their wayward patron.

The DMLE had hauled in Umbridge, literally kicking and screaming, before an emergency session of the Wizengamot, and questioned her and the Floo department employee extensively. All despite the decidedly suspect protests from various quarters of the wizarding world's chief legislative body.

If Amelia were being honest, the trial had been almost comical. Umbridge had managed to get herself labeled in contempt of court no less than three times during the questioning of the other witness.

This had resulted in her, once again, being bound, gagged and deposited face down on the floor of the courtroom until it was her turn to be questioned.

The only reason that Madam Umbridge's own interrogation had gone better was that she was put under the influence of Veritaserum. Not that it had improved her disposition much. Instead of shrieking and shouting, she had been calm and almost proudly forthcoming about her bigotry against non-purebloods. That she had then admitted to being firmly in the pocket of those who felt the same as her came as no great shock.

It was revealed, as they pushed further into the questioning, that she'd arranged the Floo shut-down as a favour to the Carrow family. A minor, but haughty Pureblood house, currently without a Wizengamot seat of their own, but with enough money to buy votes on their behalf whenever they pleased. Umbridge had admitted that she'd been hoping to get their support for a bill further marginalizing what she referred to as "Undesirables."

She'd been found guilty in an almost unanimous vote and sentenced to Azkaban.

As a result, at this very moment, Carrow Manor was being raided by the Auror Corps. Amelia was hopeful that such a surprise strike would net the DMLE some results.

What had been most offensive to Amelia about the whole sordid affair, was the complete disregard shown by Umbridge and her confederates for those she endangered. The woman herself had blatantly admitted to endangering wizarding families in the South Kensington sector of London and other nearby regions for the sole purpose of currying favour with a party she had reluctantly admitted to suspecting of being in league with known terrorists.

Her allies had, of course, attempted to stymie any efforts to nail her to the wall. Ironically, it was not them who had proved the biggest roadblock in their efforts. Dumbledore had, on multiple occasions, attempted to divert the flow of investigation to suss out what Amelia might know of Harry Potter's whereabouts.

She'd been able to stonewall him each time. But, in the end, she'd been forced to threaten the man with censure if he could not stick to the topic of the trial.

So now, here she sat, satisfied with her day's work, as she poured herself a drink. It was funny, one of the things she was most pleased with today was the way she'd been able to bring both Tonks and Jones back into the fold. It had been Tonks who had broken the whole case for them, so as a reward, and as a chance to further prove herself, she had been assigned command of the raid of the Carrow residence.

Amelia tossed back the small tumbler of firewhiskey and glanced towards the waiting room. Susan was getting antsy with being cooped up so long, but Amelia couldn't risk her going far right now. Not only might Voldemort supporters try for her, in retaliation for their losses that night, but Dumbledore would likely try and corner the girl for questioning if she were out from under Amelia's aegis.

It was a sad state of affairs, she noted with a grimace, when the supposed "Leader of the Light" was almost as much of a pain in her arse as the corrupt politicians.

Tonks shifted nervously from foot to foot as she stood in the shadow of an old oak, trying to avoid the worst of the rain falling in sheets from the sodden grey sky.

She and the other Aurors assigned to this raid were standing at various points just outside the ward lines for the Carrow Estate, warrants for their arrest in hand. They had severed all communication in and out of the residence prior to allowing the Wizengamot emergency session to let out. The Judges were more than aware the Carrows had friends in that room.

The Carrow estate was…obscene. The place was absurdly luxurious, especially considering the Carrows had no official source of regular income, conveniently excluding them from income taxes. They claimed to live off a substantial inheritance from their parents.

Tonks snorted in derision as she eyed the massive estate, with its recently expanded premises, stately gardens and gilded facades. There was no way they had afforded all this on an inheritance from a minor noble house.

The reason they were hesitating at the estate's ward line was that the plan called for entering the grounds undetected, thus Tonks had ordered a "quisling" of the house's wards, particularly those concerned with apparition. It was a difficult operation to pull off without alerting the residents.

A "quisling" was the process of reversing transportation wards target criteria to trap the owners inside their own protection. In most cases this course of action wouldn't even be a viable option. Tonight however, their breaching team had discovered the Carrows had been cheap when it came to security expenditures.

Had these wards been Goblin made, or even constructed by a reputable wizarding corporation, they would have reacted violently to such an attempt to subvert them. The aurors would likely be picking bits of the breaching team out of the trees for weeks.

These wards, however, were black market 'prefabricated' specials. Useful if one's primary concern was to avoid excess costs or paperwork. Not so useful for actually keeping yourself or your properties safe from a determined foe.

So here she stood, standing in the shadow of a tree looking over the grounds of the Carrow Estate, next to a ward cracker, who was ever so carefully working to twist the ward's rune scheme against its owners.

And finally, as the rain was starting to leech the warmth from her skin despite the charms on her to protect against the cold, the breacher gave a muttered confirmation the job was done and shot her a thumbs up. They were a go.

Tonks pushed off the tree and stood up straight, raising her wand overhead. She muttered an incantation and a bolus of roiling red energy rocketed into the sky before bursting into a small nova of white light. She didn't wait to see the others move out, because she was breaking into a run and dissolving into the twisting mists of apparition, leading the charge.

Tonks slammed out of it a moment later on the doorstep of Carrow estate. Hopping the distance from the perimeter like this allowed her and her rapidly arriving team to bypass the traps and barriers no doubt set around the grounds.

The other auror teams rocketed by overhead, crashing through the upstairs windows in a thunderclap of sound. Her team would breach and clear the manor from the ground up while those above worked their way downwards to meet them.

"The door's warded!" Tonks warned, shouting to be heard over the pounding rain, pointing out the runes etched into its surface. "Prepare for combat breach!" She levelled her wand in time with the others and began tearing at the defences.

Reductor curses pelted the door and the wards fizzled under the barrage before giving out with a pop. A final curse, an overpowered Reductor from Tonks herself, crashed into the metal door and exploded it inwards, the shattered fragments pinwheeling inward on boiling blue vortices of magic.

The aurors waited only a heartbeat for the blue glow to fade before poured into the now thoroughly shredded entrance hall of manor. Tonks wished desperately to break formation and chase off in pursuit of the sounds of combat she heard echoing down from above, but she had her own job to do, and she'd do it. This was her first active-duty command. She had to do well, by the books, if she wanted to see another one within ten years.

The red-robed magicals flowed out through the first floor of the manor, trench coats swirling around them as they stormed from room to room. The only tense moment in the procedure occurred when they burst into the kitchens and startled a cowering family of house elves. A particularly brave—or foolhardy—old elf launched himself at them with a frying pan, croaking a battlecry. Thankfully the small, wrinkled old elf was pretty close to blind and had missed her rather spectacularly. The resulting confusion this caused allowed them to talk the poor elf around, with the help of his apologetic family.

From there, Tonk's team moved up to the next floor, as the sounds of battle began to fade above them. As they made their way through and up to the third floor, the fighting stopped entirely. They found out why as they poured into a thoroughly blasted drawing room.

The Carrows were down, bound and gagged on the now somewhat less than plush carpet. Tonks noted with relief that, while a few of her team were sporting wounds, all of them were alive and well.

She nodded to them all briefly before stalking forward towards their captives. She knew what she was about to do was strictly speaking against procedure, but she announced she was going to search them for weapons, ignoring the protests that they had already been patted down.

Tonks just raised her eyes at a now flabbergasted junior Auror as she jerked down Amycus' sleeve revealing the Dark Mark. She pushed to her feet and brusquely made her way to the other bound captive, repeating the procedure and revealing the mark again.

She straightened and offered a grin at the team now almost fully gathered in the room. "Good work tonight you lot, clear the house again and search for evidence."

Tonks was about to hoist the Carrows to their feet for transport back to headquarters when a worried looking Auror returned to the room. "Hey, Boss, you should see this, I think?"

According to the map playing on the screen in front of Harry, the plane was now passing over Quebec, and was about two and a half hours out of Toronto. He couldn't be more grateful. He was sore, he was stiff, and he was tired. Getting off the plane and transferring during the layover would be a welcome chance to work out his muscles. He still was faced with a question as he considered the map, however. "You know, I didn't realize how empty Canada would look," he observed to Hermione, who was reading one of the books she'd picked up in the duty-free shop back in London. "I mean, England looks lit up like a Christmas tree compared to this,' he gestured out the window, to the mostly dark landmass below.

Hermione looked up from her book and nodded. "Well, Britain has been settled for a lot longer than Canada," She shrugged. "And Canada has a population roughly half that of the UK in a space roughly forty one times that of the entire British Isles. Most of the population is centred on the border with the United States. Can't say I blame them, most of the country is technically arctic or subarctic."

Harry blinked and then chuckled. "Right, do you literally know everything at this point? Because, I swear, I could ask you about astrophysics and you'd know it from back to front…"

Hermione blushed, she knew that had been in jest, and took it as such. But, as usual for her, the witch answered seriously, "No, not even close. I prefer to think of it as knowing a little bit about a lot of things…"

Harry held up his hands. "It's okay Hermione, I wasn't criticizing, it's impressive."

She nodded and they sat in silence for a time allowing him to further consider the map. "Merlin these flights are long…"

She grimaced and shifted with a wince before admitting ruefully, "I know, I keep getting up for the bathroom, not so much because I need to go, as that my bum has fallen asleep again…"

Harry tried not to think about Hermione's backside, somehow mentally ogling her even in passing like that felt disrespectful to his friend. He sighed, nodding. "How many hours left?"

She looked at the clock on the screen. "Eight I think, that's including the stopover in Toronto."

"Sod…" Harry breathed leaning his head back on the seat.

"Language, Harry," Hermione chastised. It said something about how much she agreed with the sentiment that it lacked any kind of real heat.

"What do we have?" Tonks barked, as she marched into the chamber concealed in the manor's basement. The Auror who had led her down pointed at what was possibly the biggest freaking door she'd seen outside of Gringotts. Judging by the runes etched all over it, and the wall it was built into, it was warded all to hell and back.

"A door."

She sighed. "Yes, I can see that. Any clue what's inside?"

He shook his head ruefully. "Not a one. But I can tell you this. The place has air ducts running into it…" He noted pointing to the ruined conduits overhead.

"A safe room?" She asked.

He shared a doubtful look with her. "Kinda hard to reach from the rest of the house, yeah?" She nodded in agreement.

"Can you get it open?"

He nodded, "Get me the breachers and curse breakers and we might manage it."

"How long?"

The auror pursed his lips and considered, before shrugging. "A few hours? The door looks scary, but it's not as bad as it could be, I think…"

Tonks favoured the door with a dark and suspicious look. She didn't trust a hidden door concealed in a terrorist's basement. Who knew what was behind it? "I'll get them," she agreed and hurried back out leaving the other Auror to stare at the door speculatively.

They were over Ontario now, flying north this time, towards their destination, in a much smaller plane, after departing Toronto.

Harry hadn't gotten much sense of the city, given how little he'd been able to see from the airport. Just another big city, like so many others. Almost like an often colder lakeside version of any number of rainy British cities. It had, nevertheless, been a welcome reprieve from the cramped confines of an airplane.

Harry, for his part, was actually in the midst of pondering the latest movie they'd watched. One of the Tolkien mythology. He felt a mixture of admiration and skepticism for the film and felt the need to comment on what he'd seen. "You know…I don't consider myself an expert on such things," he ventured, "but I've seen the Goblins at Gringotts…and I have to say, I'd swear none of them were that ugly." He considered that. "Or tall, or evil."

Hermione cracked one eye from where she was dozing and peered at him accusingly. "You do know that the people who wrote that story and made that movie have likely never even heard of real goblins right?"

He nodded thoughtfully, cheerfully oblivious to the mental cursing the girl next to him was doing. "Right…what about the elves?"

She sighed explosively and rolled over. "Go to bed Harry…"

Tonks shifted forward on her feet as another pin holding up the now decidedly less magical door was carved away in a small shower of sparks. They hadn't been able to secure the Carrow's cooperation with opening the door, they'd used the opportunity to attempt to lawyer up.

As she had been unwilling to simply blast their way through the wards and into the room beyond, they were forced to cut their way inside the old fashioned way. That had been the last piece holding the door in place. She signalled a pair of Aurors forward as the ward crackers scuttled out of the way with their tools.

The pair levitated the door off its now wrecked frame and hinges, dropping it to the floor with a clang. Tonks ventured forward cautiously, her wand out, searching for any additional security that might spring on her as she stepped through the smoke and peered into the room. When she was finally able to comprehend what she was seeing, she let out a low and heartfelt swear. Then spun on her heel and jerked a thumb over her shoulder motioning the others forward.

"You lot get this sorted out, and someone get me Director Bones…."

It was roughly a half hour later when Director Bones arrived in the shattered entrance hall. "Hello, Auror," she greeted, stepping over the shattered remains of the door. "I see you subscribe to the Alastor Moody school of breach and clear," she noted with a wry smile. Tonks offered an amused smirk in return, before sobering. "Now then, your message suggested it was urgent?"

Tonks nodded and led the Director deeper into the house. "Yes ma'am, if you'll step this way?" She explained a bit as they passed a rather distraught house elf trying to put the corridor they were passing through to rights. "You are aware that the Carrow twins claim to live off a substantial inheritance and therefore make no income?"

Amelia nodded, "Yes, and I don't believe it for a minute after seeing this place," she said, as they made their way downstairs.

Tonks agreed. "Well, it definitely appears they were lying through their teeth. They've been trading in illegal product and were actually using their own estate as a base of operations."

"Oh, what product?" Amelia asked curious.

Tonks paused a looking a little green. She shook it off and grimaced. "People, ma'am," before starting off at a brisk pace and leading a startled and appalled Amelia behind her down into the concealed warehouse.

As they passed through the shattered vault door, Amelia got her first glimpse of the pens. Rows and rows of cells, like the prisoner block in a muggle penitentiary. Each with its doorway pried open and each still occupied by a cowering prisoner, many being attended by a DMLE medic. Ideally the prisoners would have been allowed out of their cells, but the confined space of the makeshift prison did not allow for it. "Well…shit," breathed Amelia taking in the sad state of those incarcerated here. Tonks nodded in bitter agreement.

"Near as we can tell," the younger witch explained, as they paced down the rows, nodding to an Auror who was passing out blankets on the way, "Ninety percent of them are muggle. Every last one of them is female."

Amelia bobbed her head in understanding, she'd already noticed that. She'd also noted an appalling number of them appeared underage. "The remaining ten percent are witches, with the exception of one there at the end. A Dwarven female."

Amelia blinked surprise at that. "Really?" Dwarves were, by and large a reclusive lot, even those who dwelled above ground and had forsaken their old ways.

Tonks nodded. "Yes, and judging by the tattoos she's clanned, so you know what that means…"

Amelia blanched. A clanned dwarf was one who dwelled in one of their concealed underground settlements. It also meant she would be missed, and unlike a surfacer her kidnapping would be considered a crime against the Dwarven kingdom. "There's going to be hell to pay. Has she given us a name?"

"Not exactly. She gave us a clan name and then shut up on us. I'll forward the message to one of our contacts in the Kingdoms so we can bypass the liaison office," Tonks offered. That was probably a good idea, Amelia reflected. The Goblins and Dwarves hated that they were addressed through the ministry department which handled "magical creatures." That, and reporting they had found a kidnapped kinswoman from the kingdom would only heighten their ire. Nobody smart wanted angry dwarves. They might be short, and lack what was commonly called magic, but they were tough, utterly merciless to their enemies, and lethal with hand weapons. Many a wizard had underestimated them and ended up in pieces.

She would let Tonks handle that. "Is there any chance that they weren't trading these people for the obvious reason?" Amelia asked, as she tried not to stare at the stocky, tattooed woman sitting with the blanket wrapped around her as she glared darkly out at them.

Tonks nodded. "I've got a man looking through the ledgers we found now, but it appears they were mostly for the sex trade. With the exception of those they couldn't shift in a timely fashion, of course. Near as we can tell, those were traded to blood farms."

Amelia shuddered. Blood farms serviced blood magic users, and the various Vampire families exclusively. Anyone who had been sent to them was as good as dead. "Is there anything that will help us find those they've already traded? Any chance we might save a few more?"

Tonks hesitated. "Maybe… Our guy found another ledger, but it's been enchanted to be unreadable without a code. High end protections, it's likely a record of buyers. At least that's what we're hoping…uh—" She hesitated again.

"Yes Auror?" Amelia asked raising an inquisitive eyebrow at her subordinate.

"There is one other thing. You asked about the people here…"

"Please don't tell me they have more places like this…" Amelia groaned.

"Not sure. The ledgers were unclear, but they suggest they have another warehouse…" She saw Amelia's go on gestured and ploughed ahead. "It looks like it's on the London Docks."

"And, therefore, right on the Ministry's doorstep," Amelia completed with a sigh.

"Yes ma'am," Tonks agreed, she, for one, was glad political problems like that were still above her pay grade, that was a headache she didn't want.

"Are you feeling up to another raid?"

Tonks nodded agreeably. "Yes ma'am."

Amelia nodded relieved. "Okay. Have your people round all these up for the healers and mind healers. If we have to call in the ones at Saint Mungo's…"

Harry carefully reached out and gave Hermione a tentative shake. She blinked groggily at him. "Hey, 'Mione, we're almost there."

She sat up a little and stretched, Harry tried to ignore her curves as she did so, not entirely successfully. "Oh?" She leaned over to peer out the window, still blinking sleep from her eyes. She looked a touch disappointed to see nothing but darkness. "Huh, I guess we're not going to see much at this time of night…"

The plane tilted slightly and there was a crackle over the intercom. "Good Evening, passengers, this is the Captain speaking. We are ten minutes out from Churchill. Local time is 8:00 P.M. and it is currently a chilly -5 degrees celsius, we seem to have a freak snowstorm blowing through…" Harry tuned out after that.

Harry wracked his brain, trying to figure out the time back home, before giving up the game and asking Hermione. And she wrinkled her brow, trying to compute that math in her head on so little sleep. "Dunno, it's the third of July I think…" she ventured tiredly, her voice slightly slurred. "We're almost a quarter of the way around the planet from London."

Harry groaned. "Okay… Remind me, why didn't we just use a portkey, again?"

Hermione gave him a wry look. "Well, for one thing, we never even spoke about doing so. But, if you need a better reason, all international portkeys are monitored and recorded by the ministry of both the arriving and departing nations. So, unless you wanted to just put out a great big sign telling Fudge, Voldemort, and Dumbledore where we're going…"

He nodded. "We had to do it the old fashioned way. Got it."

Amelia was standing behind her desk examining where her hands were fisted on its surface. "So," She started and glanced around at her Aurors. "Anyone care to explain to me how the Carrows managed to get away with this for who knows how long, while still being so stupid as to use black market prefab wards?"

Tonks cleared her throat. "Best bet is that Alecto let Amycus handle the 'mundane' side of things. He's known to be the less intelligent of the two."

Kingsley, who had returned recently, explaining his resignation from the order, snorted. "She still thought it was a bright idea to house this all on her own property."

Tonks nodded. "Yeah, well, sad thing is, they probably would have gotten away with it if not for the incident with Umbridge."

"Any indication of how long they've been running this thing?" Amelia asked.

Tonks bobbed her head tiredly. "Not yet, their lawyers insisted they be present before we..." she paused to stifle a yawn, garnering a chuckle from the others, "question them," she finished, smiling ruefully. "You just know Fudge would jump all over us if we did an end-run around the Carrow's lawyers and 'harassed such upstanding pureblood citizens'" Tonks finished, with a vindictively nasal impression of the sitting Minister.

Amelia smiled blandly. "Go home, Tonks. You've had a long couple of days." Tonks nodded and padded out without further ado. Kingsley indicated he wished to ask a question again.

"May I ask, ma'am, what did you two find out in that warehouse?"

Amelia shook her head tiredly, "I think we'll cover that in the trial," she suggested, her tone woeful. "Some things don't really bear repeating too many times."

Harry and Hermione stood in line with everyone else, unaware that, back across the Atlantic, Tonks was just stumbling into her flat. They were experiencing the monotonous joy of waiting for the cabin crew to open the doors and allow everyone out, their belongings slung over their shoulders or tucked under their arms.

Finally, there was a clunk and Harry felt a sudden cold draft flow through the enclosed cabin as the door was opened and the plane's atmosphere was replaced with that of their destination. He shivered and cocked an eyebrow at Hermione. "Guess this is the place. But I think we forgot something..."

She looked to him expectantly. "Oh?"

"This is northern Canada, snow happens occasionally, even in summer," he noted, and indicated the passengers pulling on coats.

She looked at them for a moment, and very obviously fought down a curse. "Well...great."

A good half hour or so later, Harry stared at the clerk behind the desk in consternation. So… You're telling me they'd normally insist on quarantining our pets for over a month?"

The clerk noted the shell shocked appearance of the youth and smiled sympathetically. "Yup, your owl, anyway. The cat has less stringent regulations," he agreed happily.

"But, we don't have to do that?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Nope, familiar magics prevent parasitic infections," the squib customs agent agreed. "It's kinda my job to make sure magicals who travel the muggle way don't get held up or cause a fuss over stuff like that." She pushed the two cages over the counter to the two teenagers.

"Why do they quarantine the animals?" Harry asked vexed.

The squib chewed her cheek idly. "Well, the way I hear it, concerns about avian flu and the like are a big factor. Plus, Environment Canada doesn't want the ecosystem getting shot up by introduced species. We've got some endangered creatures in this area in particular, who could be susceptible to foreign parasites or pathogens. Heard security had to chase off a..." She glanced at something behind them. "Ah-Now as much as I'd like to discuss this further, the nice customs agent over by the door is giving us funny looks and I don't want to have to summon the obliviators if he comes over here again…He's funny enough up top as it is."

A few minutes later, Harry and Hermione, pulling their luggage from the baggage claim with them, stumbled out into the evening air. Hermione trailing behind a bit in exhaustion, apparently she really didn't travel well.

Two things struck Harry as they did so. The first thing he noticed was that it had apparently gotten even colder outside while they collected their luggage and familiars, as it was when they first landed, and second…There were pictures and models of bears everywhere. "You know, I think the locals like bears a bit more than is usual."

Hermione nodded, "Polar bears, the town is somewhat famous for them. Churchill is far enough north, and near enough to water, that they move past here seasonally..." She muttered casting her eyes about.

Harry hadn't actually expected a response and smiled cheekily at her. "Oh! Are you actually awake? I had assumed I was being followed around by a sleepwalker." Hermione groaned at his attempt at humour. "Well, it's that or, judging by that groan, a zombie of some sort."

"Erg... brains…" she groaned, then dissolved into tired chuckles leaning on him.

Harry considered her with a measure of concern. "Now, I know you're about to pass out on me, but just let me get you into a car first," he noted dryly as he flagged a taxi, then proceeded to give a start of surprise when an SUV pulled up.

The window rolled down, and the cabbie stared at them expectantly. "Can I help you, sir?" he ventured after a moment of them looking blankly back at him.

"Uh—Does this cost any more than a normal taxi?" Harry asked uncertainly.

"No, sir."

"Alright, then yeah I suppose so," Harry agreed, and the Cabbie, apparently a friendly sort in a coat hopped out of the vehicle and hurried around to help them pack the trunk into the vehicle's boot, although the Canadian called it a trunk, silly colonials.

"So, where are you two from?" He asked, his voice somewhat muffled by a balaclava, as the luggage slid in and he took in the bird in the cage being slid into the back. Oddly enough, this was one of the few places people actually went where Snowy Owls were common.

"England." Harry reported as he straightened. "Just got in off a long flight…"

The cabbie chuckled, "Ha, better you then me my friend." The two exhausted teens slipped into the back seat as he slid in himself. "Well, in case nobody bothered to properly greet you, welcome to Churchill."

Amelia gave the old man a dark look as she tucked a sleeping Susan back in on the couch, before throwing up a double-sided silencing ward and motioning Dumbledore to her more uncomfortable chair. "Alright, Headmaster," she put a sarcastic emphasis on his preferred title, "What is it this time?" Dumbledore had managed to corner her and Susan on their way into the office, and she couldn't put him off again.

He looked at her imploringly. "Amelia, I can't stress the importance of this issue enough…"

She cut him off with a gesture "Believe it or not, Albus, I have more important things to be dealing with than your unhealthy obsession with Harry Potter," she growled.

Dumbledore puffed himself up indignantly "You must trust me when I say…"

She snapped a little at this. "No. I am required to do nothing of the sort. Harry made your failures in regards to his welfare painfully clear, Albus. I won't be helping you find him."

Dumbledore glowered. "Amelia, Harry's complaints are those of a petulant teenager, we must put them aside for the greater good."

She glared at him sharply. "Really? So it's like that, is it?"

The headmaster apparently took this to mean he'd achieved the upper hand. "Yes. Now, Amelia, I really must insist…"

"Albus, I will tell you this. The purpose of his visit was to get out from under your thumb. Why? Because you have horrendously mismanaged that young man's life. I have confirmed many of his claims already and I am looking into others as we speak. Now, I want you to leave me and my family alone, Headmaster. I do not know where Harry is, or what his future plans are."

Dumbledore peered at her, his eyes accessing her shrewdly. "Very well, Amelia, thank you for telling me," he surrendered in disgust, before whirling and heading for the door.

She waited until he was nearly there before calling to him. "Have you called the session of the Wizengamot?"

He paused. "Yes, Amelia, I have."

She nodded, and shuffled some papers on her desk. "Good, I'm posting my most trusted Aurors to watch the Carrows until the trial. Please try and ensure it happens in the near future would you?"

He nodded soberly. "It is scheduled for the day after tomorrow."

"Good, I'll see you then. Good day, Headmaster."

The Cabbie peered at the town's small hotel on doubtfully. "You sure this is the place you want to stay?"

Harry nodded. "Yes."

"If you say so," the older man said shaking his head. The hotel was pretty much the only place of the sort in town, but Harry didn't know the address for the Potter house off the top of his head, and with Hermione asleep, he decided to just grab a room at the local hotel.

It took a few minutes for Harry to haul the luggage and cages up the steps, and then purchase a room, allowing Hermione to continue to sleep in the back of the cab a bit longer. The cabbie was kind enough to stick around for a bit. Apparently, demand wasn't exactly high in this little town so late at night….Or ever really…

The problem, if such it could be called, came when he tried to rouse her after he'd paid the cabbie. She just rocked slightly breathing softly, dead to the world. In the end, he decided on scooping her into his arms and carrying her up to the room.

He was struck by a thought which made him chuckle. Funny, when I imagined one day carrying a girl across a threshold I imagined her being awake…

Author's Note: As ever, thank you to my pseudo co-author/beta thingy extraordinaires Temporal Knight and Bearmauls. They do fantastic work.

Recommendation(s) of the week: "What we are fighting for" by James Spookie. An interesting tale about what would happen if Dumbledore's plan had instead been to prepare Harry from birth for the task ahead of him. And just to keep things interesting, my other recommendation is "Reunions are a Deleted" by Bob regent, sadly forever unfinished, and likely never to be finished due to a feud between the authors as I understand it. This story is a Stargate/BSG crossover dealing with a religious fundamentalist 12 colonies who believe Earth needs to forcibly be integrated into their society. Pretty intriguing just-as I said-woefully unfinished.