The Plague Ship

Synopsis: What might have happened if Sirius had been a bit more proactive after the dementor attack on Harry and Dudley? AU, and Hermione had not gone to Grimmauld Place, deciding to spend time with her family. No super-powered Harry.

Timeframe: Starting early August 8, 1995, then continuing afterwards

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Potterverse, so quit asking for loans or donations.

Chapter 7: Quarantine

Over the next three-quarters of an hour, Delacour detailed what he had discovered, with Umbridge speaking freely for the first time in years. Some of the information horrified the group, and numerous spines were stiffened.

Dumbledore realized that many of those he had hoped to turn from their dark path were truly beyond redemption. The hardest thing for the old man was the news that Voldemort's band of murderers had laughed at his attempts at kindness and mercy. Mercy was not a concept the Death Eaters had any respect for, and saw only as a sign of his weakness.

Grishnak turned serious. "Now, we need to discuss what to do about your Lord Voldemort. I fear that, like the old days when a sailing ship carrying plague was forced to stay out to sea until all the victims of the plaque had died, we need to isolate Britain from the benefits of contact with the outside world until Voldemort and his infection are gone."

Sirius paled, and asked, "But what about the other people in Britain? They are innocent. Well, most of them are, anyway."

Grishnak added, "The innocent will be informed that, until and unless they quit acting like helpless victims and sheep, the quarantine will be in effect. They have done very little to rid themselves of their Dark Lord. To my people, failing to teach your children how to fight those who would harm them, is considered as child abuse. Your people have not trained your own to fight for themselves, so we, and our allies assembled here, will! Where we can help rescue the innocent or the helpless, we will. But for those who refuse to recognise the threat, from this point there can be no help. It is a matter of survival. For those who are not innocent, the Death Eaters, and their supporters, they will have to be eliminated. Either by the wizarding population, or by us! Agreed?"

Dumbledore spoke up. "But they are afraid of the Death Eaters. There will be retribution."

Grishnak summarized. "Professor, how many people died when Voldemort tried to take power before. Consider your own school – in years long past, you had almost a thousand students. Speaking to Harry here, with his class of the first students since the first Voldemort war, there were about 300 only. Seventy percent of your wizarding population are missing. Dead? Or fled out of your island! If they were all killed, there were around thirty five thousand of your people killed. And how many of what you call muggles?"

Dumbledore shook his head.

Grishnak added, "Our count is about sixty thousand non-magical people killed in all, and ten thousand just since Voldemort was discorporated by Harry here. And your Ministry keeps letting the Death Eaters go, because after all the victims were 'just muggles'. I say this will stop!"

Dumbledore began crying. "I never noticed."

Grishnak nodded sadly. "By treachery and potions, you were not allowed to notice. Now your eyes are open. We will proceed." All in the room knew that you cannot change the past, but the future is a different matter.

Turing to Amelia Bones, he asked, "I know this is a major change in the way you have done things. Are you in accord with this?"

Madame Bones nodded sadly. "The way things have been has been the problem that I have been very unhappy with. Murderers were allowed to walk free. People who should have been imprisoned were released, and some people at the Ministry got richer because of it. This must stop. Drastic times require drastic measures. My aurors have been our policemen, or would have had they been allowed to do their duties properly. Now they must learn to be soldiers. Even though I am unhappy with the need for it, and I recognize there is a need, yes, I agree with this."

Turning to the agent of MI-5 ¾ and the others in the dark suits, he asked, "You know your targets?" The men and women nodded.

Madame Bones looked at Alastor Moody, who had a huge smile on his heavily-scarred face. She asked, "Anything to add, Mad-Eye?"

Moody nodded, "Only that it's bloody well time!"

Harry Potter spoke up. "What is all this going to cost? You people are putting yourselves at risk for me, so I want to pay for it. I understand that I now have access to my vault, so I want to do this."

Dumbledore looked at his young student, whom he had failed so badly. "Harry, I know you have felt that people are at risk because Voldemort keeps coming after you, and that it somehow is your fault. You have a good heart, in spite of your upbringing, and it does you credit. I will admit he has a certain fixation about you, because you are the only one who has survived his attacks. But were you not listening to the General? Voldemort is a direct threat to them, even if you had nothing to do with it."

"Your friend, Miss Granger, is at risk because she is a muggle-born, or as Grishnak called her kind of witch, a first-born. Also she is extremely capable, and kept showing the pure-bloods what garbage their propaganda is, by besting them at every turn."

"The Weasley family are in danger, because they are a pure-blood family who want nothing to do with Voldemort and his lies. Molly's two brothers were killed in the first Voldemort war, and Arthur's work at the Ministry was a constant embarrassment to several Death Eater families. They would be in danger even if you had never been part of their lives."

Harry looked around the room and said, "But these people are going to fight the Death Eaters, and some will be hurt, or even killed. I don't want anyone to become an orphan if I can help it. I want to know everything is being done right!"

As the room took on a sudden chill, and people started to cringe, Sirius Black stood quickly and bowed to Grishnak and Ragnok, who were scowling. "My Lord Goblins, may I apologize for my godson? He is young and does not know your ways and customs. Therefore, he is not aware that when a goblin says he will do something, it will be done right or he will die in the attempt. That is the goblin way. I know whatever is done, will be done right! Again, I ask your pardon."

Grishnak nodded, and the room warmed up again. "It is forgiven. The young are often unaware of the customs of others. However, I suggest we take advantage of Mr. Potter's offer, and set up a fund for the medical care of those injured in the coming battles, and to provide for the families of those who fall. After all, war is still business. Mr. Potter, I can assure you that we will do our best to make sure that that number will be very small, on our side. Is this acceptable?"

Harry nodded. Then he added, "We spoke earlier of Bill Weasley knowing how to create protective wards. Can I ask that we put up really strong wards for people who can't protect themselves, such as the families of the first-borns? I have to say I like that term better than 'muggle-born'. The pure-bloodists also seem to hate the half-bloods like myself and my friend Seamus."

Sirius Black added, "And how about putting up protective wards around Azkaban?"

Amelia Bones shook her head. "Azkaban is well protected, and escape-proof. Why add wards there?"

Sirius smiled at her, and said, "Madame Bones, you forget, for just a moment I am sure, but I escaped from Azkaban! It is not escape-proof. If we start making a serious dent in Voldemort's forces, he might try to break out those who actually are held in Azkaban, like my cousin Bellatrix! And what if he recruits the dementors stationed there? I mean, if Malfoy could bribe his way out, but Cousin Trixie couldn't, that means that she was so bad that even Minister Fudge didn't dare letting her loose. We need to be sure that the people in there, stay in there."

With a nasty twinkle in his eye, Grishnak added, "Or we can make sure that their life sentence means exactly what it is called! A very good idea. Monsieur Delacour, do you wish a similar treatment for the Chateau d'If?"

The Frenchman thought for a moment and then nodded.

Harry spoke up again. "How much will these extra wards cost to set up?"

Ragnok gestured to one of the goblins at the side of the room. The creature drew a parchment from a device on the table, and passed it to Ragnok, who looked at it, smiled, and passed the document to Grishnak. The elder goblin also nodded. "Mr. Potter, the cost of conducting this war, with the additional warding for the families of first-borns and half-bloods and the extra funds you have suggested, comes to a tidy sum. It works out to just under two percent of the annual interest on the Potter estate. Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, is this amount acceptable?"

Sirius smiled and leaned over to his godson, nudging him in the ribs with his elbow. "Harry, say yes!"

Sirius turned to Grishnak and Ragnok, and asked, "If we are to impose an embargo of goods going to the UK, won't that harm the merchants who are supplying the goods? I suspect some are knowingly complicit, after all, bigotry knows few boundaries, but as Harry says, I would also not want the innocent to suffer. May I propose that, where it can be shown that the vendors are innocent of the Death Eaters' actions or propaganda, we, meaning Harry and I, being as I am his godfather and guardian and I can make this offer on his behalf, we will buy the embargoed goods in their stead."

Grishnak smiled. Here was a wizard with a head for business. He would have to tell his grandfather about it – the old goblin would never believe it.

The goblins nodded, and noted, "Mr. Black, you are committing the Houses of Potter and Black to an awful lot of wine and cheese, not to mention the high-priced cognac that your Mr. Malfoy is so fond of?"

Sirius transformed into Snuffles briefly, and then back into his human form. "Then I guess it is fortunate that dogs like cheese, isn't it?"

Turning to Amelia Bones, he blushed. "Madame Director, I am afraid I never got around to registering as an animagus, and to tell you the truth, I would prefer to keep it that way."

The head of the DMLE just smiled. "I'm sure the registration papers just got lost in the usual bureaucratic foul-up. I wouldn't worry about it."

The British wizarding society was shocked to find both the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler running the same public announcement on tier front pages, a week before students were scheduled to return to Hogwarts for the fall term.

It read:

'Notice to All:

The Ministry of Magic has been informed by their counterparts in Europe and North America that, unless and until the Tom Riddle, the self-styled Dark Lord known as Lord Voldemort, and his gang of thugs known as the Death Eaters, are eliminated as a threat to wizarding societies everywhere, they are imposing a permanent trade embargo on our country.

As part of this embargo, Gringott's Bank has frozen the assets of all persons known to wear the Dark Mark, and of all persons known to support the Dark Lord's cause. If any persons find that their accounts have problems due to an error in this designation, they are requested by Lord Ragnok, the President of Gringott's (London), to present themselves in person at Gringott's to have the matter straightened out.

As the public will know, the Daily Prophet has been carrying the claims of the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, denying the claims of Harry Potter and Hogwarts' Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, that Lord Voldemort has returned. It has been proven, to the satisfaction of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, that Fudge has been under the sway of the marked Death Eater Lucius Malfoy.

Evidence has shown that Mr. Malfoy, who was exonerated after the war with Lord Voldemort ending in 1981 when Harry Potter (aka the Boy-Who-Lived) somehow defeated Voldemort, was pardoned only after substantial bribes were paid to important persons in the Ministry. The recipients of the bribes have been removed from their positions at the Ministry, and the whereabouts of Lucius Malfoy are under investigation. Anyone having knowledge of his location is asked to contact the DMLE immediately.

In light of this action by our neighbours, the Ministry of Magic has removed all employees wearing the Mark or supporting their cause, from positions of authority or influence.

Because of the undue influence these persons have exerted, there have been numerous unmarked supporters of the Death Eaters' cause who have been on staff. This consequent reduction in staff will slow Ministry operations for some time, but the public is assured that from now on, they will get honest service from their public servants.

At this time, the Ministry of Magic of Great Britain officially apologises to Harry Potter and to Headmaster Dumbledore for the lies told by the previous administration.

The Ministry has also accepted new evidence that Sirius Black, the head of the Black family, is completely innocent of the charges for which he was unjustly imprisoned. Restitution will be made, and the Ministry apologises for this miscarriage of justice.'