Chapter 16: The Questionings of the Witnesses

Albus' mind still couldn't drink in what all he had seen and heard in this past two hours. It was like he had gone to sleep and dreamed about all this. It was like he would wake up and find out that he had his questioning today and wouldn't get any answers to his questions at all! Everything was a bit blurry as the side effects of the Pensieve took over him.

"Well, that was it. A bit intimidating and overwhelming actually, but there you have your answers. Now, tell me if you have any questions at all, okay?" said Ron warmly.

"Yes, you know who Wormtail is too, don't you?" asked Harry bitterly.

Wormtail, or Peter Pettigrew actually, was one out of the four Marauders, a small school group consisting of four people. Albus' grandfather, James Potter who James Sirius Potter, Albus' brother, is named after. Sirius Black, who James is also named after. Remus Lupin, who was a werewolf, but also very good. He was bitten by someone who his father had offended. A very renowned and dangerous werewolf: Fenrir Greyback. And, unfortunately, a cowardly rat by the name of Peter Pettigrew. They all teamed up and worked hard to become Animagi, witches or wizards that transfigure into an animal nonverbally and wandlessly to help Remus during the full moons. Peter Pettigrew betrayed Albus' grandparents, Lily and James Potter, and got them killed by Voldemort.

"Yes, I've got one. You never said anything about Cedric Diggory dying. You said it was too much for our little minds to take in," said Rose raising her eyebrows.

"Yes, and it still is too much. We won't be telling you the exact details until you're old enough to drink Firewhiskey, Apparate, perform magic outside of school, yeah, yeah, yeah, " smirked Hermione.

Rose crossed her arms angrily before huffing, "Humph! Fine then!"

Harry sighed before suddenly switching to serious mode. Even the atmosphere suddenly became serious. "Well, you guys don't have lessons at all until the questionings, so you can just hang out until Friday then," he said seriously, his voice a perfect match with his face.

The kids nodded. "Let's get back to the common room then," said Ron before motioning for the kids to walk out and following them.

"So what do you think they're going to ask tomorrow?" whispered Rose to Scorpius, Merope, and Albus.

"Well, just, I dunno, what did he look like, maybe?" suggested Merope, giving a look that said, 'Yes, no?'.

"They know what he looks like!" snapped Scorpius irritably.

"Well, I don't know, okay? Do you have any ideas Mr. I-Know-Everything?"

"As a matter of fact, I do. And thank you for that compliment. One thing I take pride in being a Malfoy is my 'I-Know-Everything' feature," smirked Scorpius.

"And what is that idea, may I ask?" piped up Rose, taking her fellow girl's side.

"It's- it's- Scorpius, it's?" stammered Albus, trying, but failing miserably to help his fellow boy.

"What did he say!" said Scorpius overdramatically, pointing his finger ahead which is an obvious sign of just now figuring out the answer.

"Ha! You just came up with it!" said Merope victoriously.

"What? That-that's not true at all. Why would you think that?" stuttered Scorpius guiltily.

The girls just sighed before rolling their eyes.

"Well, we'd better get to sleep now, we've got the questioning tomorrow, remember? We just finished guessing what the questions were going to be," joked Albus.

The foursome started to get up before quickly scurrying up to their dorms.

Tomorrow's going to be a long day thought Albus before sighing.

"We're sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Potter, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy, that's too many people at once. Only one of you can come in. Talk amongst yourselves now and decide," said one of the people from the Investigation Department who were questioning the kids about the Christmas incident.

Everyone turned to Hermione, knowing she was the gentlest one out of them all. Except for Mrs. Malfoy, who didn't really know her much. She just did it because everyone else was. That seemed right to Albus.

Hermione looked around awkwardly before stepping ahead.

"Okay, come on in then, Mrs. Weasley," said one of the questioners, being extra kind to their boss' boss.

They walked in and sat down in the chairs laid out.

"Well, let's start with names. I know all four of your names, no need for that. I am Mr. Shafiq," said Mr. Shafiq, "and I am the Head of the Investigation Department. Your dad is my boss, and your aunt, present in this room, is my, well, super-boss you could call it. This here is Mr. Prince, I am his boss and your dad is his super-boss, and your aunt is his, well, super-super-boss."

Albus could totally tell that this guy was being fake-nice. He obviously just wanted to get it over with.

"Hi, I'm Mr. Prince, nice to meet you all," said Mr. Prince warmly. He seems genuinely nice thought Albus.

"Well, first question, how did Bartemius Crouch Jr. confront you? And yes I am aware that only three out of the four of you can answer this question," said Mr. Shafiq quickly. "So, I would appreciate if we could start from the left and just skip Mr. Potter for this question."

Scorpius was sitting on the far left, so he was going first. "Well, I was following Rose and Merope to the bathroom because Rose wasn't feeling too well, and Albus was going to get Mrs. Weasley, when we went to the bathroom, Rose started throwing up, and we didn't realize that there was someone right behind us until we turned around. And we were at the last sink to the wall unfortunately, so we backed to the wall while he said some stuff we couldn't understand like turning someone into a ferret or helping them through a contest. It was weird. And then, we saw Mrs. Weasley outside the door which was opened. Crouch turned around and sent a curse at her, she didn't have time to get her wand since she had no idea he would be there. Then, she just said, 'Crouch' before screaming. And then, five seconds later, Albus appeared beside us. And then Crouch said stuff like a reunion and stuff about the adults when they were at Hogwarts, and then Albus silently pulled out his wand, he was the only one that had it with him, and Flipendoed Crouch while he was distracted, then everything just became a blur because there were so many people running around the place. And then Albus disappeared, and we were taken out. And then we went—"

"That will be enough. Now, do you two have anything different?" asked Mr. Shafiq rudely.

"Mr. Shafiq, please excuse me, I am here as the adult to help and comfort the children, but as your super-boss, the way you are taking this questioning is not legally correct. I favor it because it doesn't make all the children have to talk about the incident, but this is not the way a questioning should go," said Hermione prudently.

"Well Mrs. Weasley, like you said, you are not here for work reasons, and as you also said, you favor this way, so why should you object?" said Mr. Shafiq in that same prudent voice.

Hermione sighed before rolling her eyes and saying, "Look Shafiq, I honestly don't have the energy to deal with you, so just go on with what you're doing."

Mr. Shafiq's fake smile disappeared and became a sneer as he continued.

"Okay, next question, Miss Riddle will answer. What age did he look like? Did he look very old, or young?"

"Hold on a second," started Hermione. "I really don't want to deal with you Shafiq, but all of us saw that too, there's no need to trouble the children with such a question. I couldn't tell you the answer, but some of the Hogwarts staff can, many of your fellow Ministry workers can, the other Aurors that have been staying at Hogwarts can." She raised her eyebrows before adding in a soft voice, "And right now, I amspeaking as your, what do you call it? 'Super-boss'. I would appreciate if Mr. Prince here asks the questions. What I mean to say is, he's not trying to give off a radiance that shouts, 'I am much superior to everyone else around me'."

Mr. Shafiq gave her a truly evil look filled with annoyance and hatred before saying softly, "Fine." He turned to Mr. Prince and gave him the paper he was reading from before turning back to Hermione and saying, "Happy?"

"Very."

"Good, then."

"Okay, Merope, you may answer this one. What did his wand look like? If you don't know the answer, then that's okay, someone else out of the four of you can answer," said Mr. Prince kindly. Genuinely kindly.

"Well, I don't really know, he kept on moving it too quickly," said Merope nervously.

"Does anyone else know?" asked Mr. Prince.

None of the kids said anything.

"I could tell you," said Hermione. "It looked like hornbeam wood and was at least 11 inches. That's all I know."

"Very well, thank you Hermione. We'll take a look at it. We just wanted to ask the question to make sure it was the right one," said Mr. Prince.

Mr. Prince asked a few more questions which anyone of them who knew could answer, before saying they were free to go.

The kids walked out to see their parents (except for Merope who just walked out) waiting for them. There were also some people from the Ministry, most likely to question Albus.

"Albus, let's go in, come on," said Harry quietly, holding Albus' hand. They followed the other questioners in to the same classroom as before and took their seats in the chairs.

"Okay, this won't take long Albus, we'll be out before you know it, okay?" whispered Harry.

Albus nodded.

"Okay, well, this is Mr. Malkyn and I'm Ms. Neltern. This shouldn't take too long; we just want to ask you a few questions on how you transported yourself from the Great Hall to the bathroom and back. First, just tell me how you felt, what emotions you felt before this happened. Because we're pretty sure this happened because of the emotions you felt," said Ms. Neltern.

"Well, I heard my Aunt Hermione say 'Crouch', and I had heard the Aurors talking about him the other day, and knew he wasn't the best person on Earth. And I felt really scared and worried for my friends and thought why I couldn't be there with them. And then everything became a blur and I closed my eyes because it gave me the illusion that I was going to get something in it. And when I opened my eyes, I was in the bathroom," Albus explained.

"I see, okay and tell me about when you went back to the Great Hall," asked Ms. Neltern.

"I was just kind of surprised about what just happened, and was just looking at everyone scrambling around the place, and then I had that same feeling, everything became a blur and to avoid getting anything in my eyes, I closed them and when I opened them, I was in the Great Hall."

"Okay, now tell me what you felt when you transported to the bathroom in that brief moment when you closed your eyes?" questioned Ms. Neltern as Mr. Malkyn took notes.

"I-I-I don't remember. I think I felt the same as before, I didn't realize what was going on. I didn't realize I was moving anywhere," replied Albus.

"Oh, okay. Now tell me what you felt physically during that same moment," said Ms. Neltern.

"Well, it was extremely windy."

"Did it feel like you were being squeezed through a tiny rubber tube?"

"No. Definitely not."

"Okay, well, that's all we'll be asking now. Have a great day," said Ms. Neltern warmly.

Sorry I had to take off and put back on these chapters. I should've checked. Chapter 17 will NOT be the last chapter. I can't stop it there! But Chapter 17 will be the last update in this chain :( Sorry.