Undone
by Healer Pomfrey
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC.
It is my story, and I intend to write it the way I want it. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Reviews are very welcome, as they inspire my muse. Thank you very much for the kind feedback on the previous chapter!
"All right. Thank you Professor. I think that I won't tell him at this time," Tom said, decisively.
"Maybe that's better," Harry agreed, knowing from McGonagall's expression that she concurred as well.
HP
The discussion with the headmaster went surprisingly well up to a point when Dumbledore cast Tom and Harry a confused look.
"As I said, I completely agree with your plans about the new Ministry of Magic," he said, absentmindedly popping a lemon drop into his mouth. "However, I don't understand how it came that it was the two of you who thought about this kind of revolution. I'd have expected someone who had made bad experiences with, for example, the betrothal rules or such to come up with such an idea. If I'm correctly informed, you were both able to choose a witch of your liking and are happy with your choice. Is this so?"
"Yes sir," Harry was the first to reply.
"Yes, that's correct," Tom echoed, letting out a deep sigh. "Professor, there's more to the story," he then said, gently stroking Fawkes' crown feathers, as the phoenix was perched on Harry's left arm. "Will you promise to hear me out and not interrupt me, sir?"
Glancing at McGonagall, who smiled and gave him a comforting nod, the headmaster agreed.
Tom quickly told his story, already knowing how to bring the most important facts over as fast as possible, as he had already told everything a couple of times.
"You are Tom Riddle?" Dumbledore asked, incredulously.
"I was," Tom corrected him. "Yes sir."
"Well, seeing that Fawkes allows you to pet him, you're definitely not evil," Dumbledore concluded, more to himself than to his visitors.
"I never was," Tom confirmed. "On the first Wizengamot meeting after the end of this school year, I'm going to out myself and ask for a trial against Dolores Umbridge. She deserves worse than Azkaban."
"Tom," Dumbledore spoke up, thoughtfully stroking his beard, "thank you for telling me the truth, about the new ministry as well as about your past. I appreciate it, and I will support you during the Wizengamot meeting."
"Thank you Professor," Tom replied, smiling. "If you have any questions about the organisation of the new ministry, Amelia Bones and Augusta Longbottom are organising everything," he added, causing the headmaster to nod, contentedly.
HP
Harry had to try hard to push every excitement about the new ministry as well as about Umbridge's trial aside to concentrate on his OWLs. Fortunately, the ten Wallace classmates had always studied a lot, so that the OWL preparations were fairly easy for them. Nevertheless, the whole class was extremely relieved when the exam week, which seemed to be infinitely long, was finally over.
On the following Saturday, the last Quidditch match of the year took place, once again ensuring the Quidditch cup in addition to the house cup for Wallace like every year during the last five years.
HP
It was on Sunday evening that Frank Longbottom spoke up on their regular Sunday meeting, which was still taking place in Sirius' and Remus' quarters although the number of participants had increased greatly.
"If the new Ministry of Magic is going to commence working on July 1st as intended, who is going to be the Minister of Magic?" he enquired. "I understand that you don't want Fudge in the new ministry at all."
"I've always thought that Tom was going to be the minister, since the whole revolution was his idea," Amelia replied, sounding surprised at the question.
Tom sighed, before he shook his head. "Amelia, frankly speaking, I'd like to finish Hogwarts first, plus I'd like to remain living together with my fiancée," he said, thoughtfully.
"Living together with Hermione is no problem, Tom," Harry spoke up, noticing from the corner of his eyes that Hermione blushed profusely. "You could live in the founders' quarters. We could even connect the fireplace in the living room to the Floo network, so that you could easily floo there from the ministry."
"That sounds reasonable," Augusta Longbottom spoke up.
"I second that," Amelia agreed and suggested, "Since you have already taken your NEWTs once, you could simply either have the records charmed to your new name or take the NEWTs again right away."
"Well, the minister should be elected anyway," Tom finally replied, causing everyone to chuckle.
"Don't worry Tom, if everyone here agrees on you as the new minister, the other parties in the Wizengamot won't be able to do anything about it," Adrian Greengrass, Daphne's father, spoke up, grinning.
"I'll speak with Filius about charming your NEWT results," Rosie promised, smiling at the young wizard.
HP
On the one hand, Harry was looking forward to the Wizengamot meeting that was supposed to become Umbridge's trial, however, on the other hand, he was dreading it, afraid that it would go wrong and something was going to happen to Tom.
'Don't worry, Harry. It's going to be great,' Luna informed him, smiling.
HP
Exactly one week after the students had boarded the Hogwarts Express to travel home, most of Hogwarts students except for about half of the Slytherin house travelled to the Ministry of Magic together with their parents to witness one of the most important Wizengamot meetings of recent times.
Severus Snape, Regulus Black and Argus Filch were the only human permanent residents of Hogwarts who remained at the castle instead of attending the meeting. Even if neither the Potions Master nor Regulus had a clue why they had been asked to remain instead of acting as a witnesses, they listened to the younger wizard, almost certain that it had to have something to do with the Dark Mark, which was still visible on their left arms.
"Tom, if anything goes wrong, remember that I can transform into a phoenix and flash you away," Harry reminded his best friend, sensing that the boy was extremely excited, when they walked down to Hogsmeade to have their guardians apparated them to the ministry.
"Thank you Harry," Tom replied, smiling. "You're a wonderful friend." Looking at Luna, he added, "Considering that Luna seems to be very happy today, I don't think that anything will go wrong though."
"You're right," Luna agreed, smiling.
Nevertheless, Harry could not prevent himself from being excited, especially when he realised just how crowded the room was. The usual meeting room was much too small for so many spectators, so that the walls separating the room from an adjacent courtroom had been taken down to allow everyone to sit in the court room to listen in to the Wizengamot meeting.
Dumbledore greeted everyone before asking if anyone had to add anything to the agenda.
"I have," Tom spoke up, quickly. "I accuse Dolores Umbridge of frequent use of the Permanent Imperius curse and wish to have a trial for her."
"What?" Umbridge blurted out in clear surprise, before she got a grip on herself and commanded, "Aurors, arrest the boy."
HP
"I believe that Mr. Gaunt has a valuable point," Amelia spoke up, and Dumbledore nodded his agreement.
"Mrs. Umbridge, are you willing to be questioned under Veritaserum to prove your innocence in this matter?" he enquired.
"Of course not," Umbridge replied, haughtily. "I'd rather question Mr. Gaunt under Veritaserum."
"I agree to be questioned under the truth serum, however, not by Umbridge," Tom spoke up.
"I suggest that Mr. Gaunt first explains his accusations in detail, before we decide if one of the parties or both have to be questioned under Veritaserum," Amelia decided, motioning Tom to speak.
"Originally, my name was Tom Riddle," Tom began to explain. "At the age of eleven, when I still knew nothing about the magical world, I was betrothed to Dolores Umbridge. At that time, even if not yet a Hogwarts student, she was already well into the Dark Arts in spite of only being a half-blood witch. Anyway, from the time we were forced to marry onwards, she kept me under the Permanent Imperius curse and forced me to become a Dark Lord. She forced me to commit murders and make others do the same. It was a horrible life, from which Harry Potter fortunately managed to save me fourteen years ago."
Seeing that everyone was listening more or less patiently, he continued, "For many years, I was a mere spirit and tried to gain a corporate body in vain. When Harry came to Hogwarts, I was hoping that he could help me and possessed Quirinus Quirrell. However, before I had a chance to speak with Harry, Quirinus was killed by a mountain troll that had made its way into Hogwarts for an unknown reason, and the instant he was killed, I was in the possession of his body."
"You did not kill Professor Quirrell, a troll did. Is that correct?" Amelia interrupted him, apparently just to make sure that everyone got that point.
"Yes Madame," Tom confirmed. "After discussing the matter with Harry and a few other wizards and witches, I finally asked Regulus to blood adopt me and took a de-aging potion in order to forget my former life that Dolores had completely destroyed for me. Ever since then, I've been attending Hogwarts under my new name Tom Gaunt. It took some time before I was ready to speak about it, however, today, I'd like to see justice towards my former wife. She kept me under the Permanent Imperius curse for about thirty years and made sure to renew the curse before it wore off. I never had a chance to break it or get away when I could hope that it might wear off."
"I wish to question Mrs. Umbridge under Veritaserum," Dumbledore spoke up, and more than half of the members of the Wizengamot immediately agreed.
Amelia had two Aurors restrain her least favourite colleague and another Auror administer three drops of Veritaserum.
Asking for her name, she made sure that the potion worked, before she began to interrogate her about the accusation, and the members of the Wizengamot were stunned to say the least, when Umbridge admitted to having caused the existence of the Dark Lord thus being responsible of hundreds of murders all over the country.
Almost every member with the exception of Cornelius Fudge and Lucius Malfoy voted to have Umbridge sentenced to a life time in Azkaban.
According to a secret agreement with Tom, Amelia instructed the Aurors to leave the prisoner in a ministry cell for the time being, and the Aurors eagerly took the witch away, of whom none of them were fond to say the least.
"Thank you everyone," Tom spoke up, seemingly relieved at how well everything had gone so far. "I have one more matter to address today," he continued, before he waved his wand over the room including the court room, casting a silent spell in Parseltongue that made all Dark Marks move from people's left arms to their faces.
"I suggest that you question all Death Eaters under Veritaserum and send those who can't prove that they received the mark under the Imperius curse to Azkaban," he said, looking from Amelia to Dumbledore.
To everyone's but Tom's disbelief, even the Minister of Magic was wearing the Dark Mark.
"It appears that we have some work to do," Amelia agreed and motioned the Aurors to administer Veritaserum to each of the Death Eaters, beginning with the minister, followed by the members of the Wizengamot and finally the Death Eaters within the audience.
Amelia kept the questioning short and merely asked for a person's name to confirm the potion's functionality and if they had taken the Dark Mark out of their own free will. Two hours later, all thirty witches and wizards who were bearing the Dark Mark were taken to Azkaban, except for the Minister of Magic, Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange, whom Amelia demanded to be taken to a ministry cell for the time being.
"Do you know why some of them go to ministry cells?" Regulus whispered to Tom, who nodded and mouthed, "Later."
HP
"Very well," Dumbledore spoke up. "Thank you, Mr. Gaunt, for this invaluable information. We really appreciate it. Now, it seems as if we urgently need a new Minister of Magic. Should we decide on an interim minister right away and make the official vote take place on the last Wizengamot meeting in August?"
Everyone agreed, and when Augusta Longbottom suggested Tom as the interim minister, only five members voted against Tom.
"Tom Gaunt, do you accept the vote?" Dumbledore enquired.
"Yes sir. Thank you all very much for your confidence," Tom replied. "I promise that I will do everything differently from my predecessor, and I invite you all to come to me if you have any suggestions."
HP
"Luna," Harry asked, thoughtfully, when the two of them went for a walk around the lake after dinner. "Do you know why Tom asked Amelia to put Umbridge, Fudge, Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange into ministry holding cells instead of Azkaban?"
Luna merely smiled. "They deserve it," she finally said, making Harry stare at her in confusion.
"All right, so you have seen something," Harry said, feeling slightly annoyed, however, was already used to the fact that Luna barely ever admitted what she had seen in her visions. "Do you know if Tom is going to be elected as the permanent Minister of Magic in August?" he then asked.
"I think so," she replied, giving Harry a dreamy look, before he captured her lips with his mouth and pulled her into a long and passionate kiss.
Suddenly, an idea crossed Harry's mind. He pondered the matter for an instant, before he decided to just ask her.
"Luna," he spoke up, slowly, "if Tom manages to get rid of all these stupid betrothal and marriage rules, do you still want to marry me next year?"
To his horror, Luna remained pensive for a moment, before she said in a soft voice. "I'm not sure, Harry."