Disclaimer: I don't even own the plot, the voices own it.

Chapter 9

Bill and Harry walked into the ministry only to have wands drawn on them. Both of them stopped and slowly raised their hands before hearing Madam Bones shout. "Lower your wands." She came pushing her way through the group of Aurors. "Are you ok Harry?"

"Yeah, how are Rebecca and Tonks?"

"Worried, they're in my office. I had to bind Tonks; she was going to go after you on her own. Can you give us a statement Bill?"

"Will an assault be held against me?" He was still growling.

"That depends on who you assaulted. Please give me a name I can live with."

Harry put his hand on Bill's shoulder and answered for him. "The old man tried to get Ginny to break her vow. Bill showed him that it wasn't his smartest move."

"Lets go to my office and you can tell me what happened." She turned to the Aurors. "I need you to go to Hogwarts to back up the squad already there. I want Dumbledore arrested the moment he shows his face. Remember, he's already assaulted one Auror, go." Amelia led them to the lifts and to her office.

Harry was hit with a hug the moment he entered. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, how about you and Tonks?" He looked over at the pink haired Auror who was now smiling.

"We're fine; we were only hit with a couple of stunners." Rebecca released Harry only to be replaced by Tonks.

"How did you get out?"

"That's what I need to know." Madam Bones interrupted the little reunion.

Harry looked at Bill who still looked pissed so he told the story. When he was done he asked. "Do you know who the ones that did it are?"

"Hestia, Mundungas, and a David Johnston we have them in cells now. We released Kingsley, he apparently didn't know anything about this, and we also pulled the warrants on Professors McGonagall and Snape and on Emmeline Vance since they weren't involved. We're still not sure about Alastor." She turned to Bill. "We'll be adding attempted murder to Dumbledore's charges; do you think Ginny will be ok with coming in and giving us a statement?"

"I can ask her but I don't want her to have to do it today, would tomorrow morning be good enough?" Amelia said yes and Bill turned to Rebecca. "I know you probably don't feel like it but I think Princess could really use someone to talk to today."

"I think that would be a good idea especially after everything that's happened today, having her headmaster try to kill her has to have really affected her. If you want I can come with you so that she can be in familiar surroundings, she might need that for a couple of days."

"Thanks I think she'll appreciate that and it will give you a chance to meet our parents. Speaking of having your headmaster try to kill you, are you ok Harry?"

"I don't know, I kind of figured out that everything he had done to me was either a test or he wanted me dead. I was leaning towards dead already but to have him confirm it… I don't know."

Tonks pulled him back into a hug. "We can talk about it when we get home." She turned to Bill. "I release you from your oath please let Ginny's go. I'm sorry; I never thought that this would happen."

"It's not your fault. We know who's to blame."

An Auror knocked on the door. "We just brought the headmaster in, he was hit with about ten stunners and five incarcerous spells at the same time so we have him in the infirmary at the moment. His hand also looked like it had been broken." He reached into his robes and pulled out a broken wand looking a little nervous he continued. "It seems that when we hit him we may have broken his wand, either that or it broke when he fell on it, we're not sure which."

"I broke it when I broke his hand."

The Auror looked over the skinny kid that had said this and snorted. "You broke it? I don't think so."

Bill stood up. "Would you like us to demonstrate how it was done? I'm sure you'll believe him while you're having your hand healed."

"Don't forget the jaw, his doesn't look as strong as the old mans, I think you'll break it this time." Harry was next to Bill glaring.

Madam Bones noticed something in the other two women in the room. "Harry, Bill, step back please. Auror Riley you need to look around. The last two people you want to piss off right now are standing in this room, they just got Harry back after he was kidnapped and Bill is the one who brought him back. One of these people is a healer so she knows exactly which spots to hit to hurt you the most. You already know what happens when someone pisses off Auror Tonks, I believe you had plenty of time in the infirmary after making fun of her during training. These two men have already taken some of their anger out on someone, they haven't. Do really want to be the one to push them over the edge?" When Amelia had mentioned that they had just got him back Harry had looked at the two women mentioned. One look at their faces and he put his hand on Bill arm. When the older man looked at Harry he saw a hint of something that he hadn't seen there before, fear, he followed the prompt and backed up to the wall giving him a questioning look.

Harry leaned over and whispered. "That look means that CAA's are coming. If they move, hide. You don't want to see it."

Bill had no idea what CAA's were but if they could put that look on Harry's face he didn't want any part of them.

Auror Riley had seen the two guys back up and the way the kid looked at the women in question. He then looked at them himself and saw a face he would never forget. He had seen that face one time before and it took a week for the healers at St. Mungo's to reverse all of the spell damage on him. The fire red hair and eyes were permanently burned into his mind. He looked back at the two guys and the younger one spoke.

"Don't look at us, we know when to run. If you're too stupid to figure it out you're on your own."

After one more look at the women he decided that the kid may be right and literally ran from the office.

Bill looked at Harry. "What are CAA's?"

"Corrective Attitude Adjusters, I've discovered that when women are pissed off they can be really creative in coming up with ways to punish the ones that did it. Trust me if you see that look on a woman, run like hell."

Madam Bones was pulling a sheet of parchment from her desk. "I think Riley needs to work on his people skills, a couple of months at the security desk should help with that." As she filled in the form Minister Fudge walked into the office.

"Did you really arrest Dumbledore?" Amelia looked up.

"Please close the door." Once he did she continued. "Harry we need to downplay this in the press, I'm sorry but I think we need to keep making you look a little unbalanced."

"That's ok, like I said I'm used to it and I don't read the paper anyway."

"Not to mention the way you were acting court this morning, everyone who was there will believe you're a complete nutter." Tonks added with a grin.

"That's true; you even had me wondering for a moment." Amelia continued. "Minister we need you to say that he was brought in for questioning but that, since the story comes from Harry, we're not really giving it any weight. Hopefully we'll have everything in place to finish this in the next couple of weeks. Can you do this?"

"Yes, that might work with the Profit."

"Thank you. Now I think we should let you all go about your business."

Bill spoke. "Minister could you give us a moment?" When Fudge nodded, still grinnign like a madman, and left he continued. "The goblin's experts should be here on Wednesday so we should be ready for the ritual on Thursday. We're going to Hogwarts tomorrow to get the last one, could you have a couple of Aurors meet us there, I'd like to have some ministry back up in case there's trouble."

"Let me know what time and I'll be there with them. Could you let the goblins know that we should have everything in place for the attack by the end of the week, Fleur's father has been a great help?"

"I'll let them and Fleur know. We'll be at Hogwarts at eleven tomorrow morning. What time would you like to talk to Ginny?"

"How about eight?"

He agreed and they all said their goodbyes to Amelia and made their way to the apparition point talking along the way. Tonks and Harry made sure that Rebecca was going to come over for dinner and invited Bill to join them. Bill begged off saying he was having dinner with Fleur. Rebecca side along apparated with him to the Borrow, and Tonks and Harry went back to her flat.

XXXXXX

Rebecca was about to leave the Borrow when Hermione stopped her and asked if they could talk for a minute. After she said sure Hermione led her outside and towards the garden.

"You want to talk about Harry right?"

"I want to apologize to him for this morning. I don't want to wait until I see him on the train."

"Hermione, you won't see him on the train. He can't go back to Hogwarts even if he wanted to. He plead guilty at the trial this morning and they gave him a permanent expulsion."

"But why would he do that? The law says that he's allowed to use magic to defend himself, they can't expel him for that."

"He did it because he wants to leave the magical world."

"Harry can't leave the magical world; he's a wizard he needs to go to Hogwarts to learn how to use his magic."

"Hermione, take a moment and try to look at this from his point of view. What has magic done for him? What has magic done to him? Then tell me how the scales fall. He's decided that the scales go against the magic. What do you think?"

"So he's decided to just quit and leave? That doesn't sound like Harry."

"It's not Harry; you're looking at it from your point of view. Harry's life was horrible growing up, and then at eleven he finds out about another world and sees another chance so he took it. Do you consider it just quitting and leaving because he chose to go to Hogwarts?"

"Of course not, he's a wizard and needed to learn magic."

"Again, your point of view. If I had to guess I'd say that your parents didn't even spank you once, did they?"

Hermione looked at her like she was some sort of monster. "No, they didn't. Why would they?"

"Harry didn't get spanked either, he was beaten. I've seen his scars and old broken bones and can tell you with in a year or two of when he got them. When he got that letter he probably saw it as a way to escape so he took it. Since then he's had not only all of the crap that has happened in the magical world but he's also forced to go back to those relatives every summer so he's getting the worst of both lives so far. Then with every thing that happened last year everyone completely ignores him. Tonks told me that she was told that he was someone who was closed off and didn't discuss his feelings." Hermione nodded. "When I asked him about it and why he had changed, he said that you were the one who always told him he should talk to someone and this summer he figured out that holding everything in was only hurting him. He decided to take your advice." She paused for a moment seeing tears running down Hermione's cheeks. "I'm not saying this to be cruel to you, I'm just trying to get you to see it the way he does. He sees it as three complete strangers being the only ones who cared about him at all. When I examined him that first night I found that one more punch to his left side would more than likely have killed him, he was barely holding on as it was. That was the reward he got for saving his cousin from dementors. He sees that a wizard killed his parents and another wizard not only put him with those relatives but forces him to stay there. Tack on everything that happened this morning and tell me what you would be thinking and what you would do?"

"But we were told not to write to him, he just needed time to adjust."

"I was told what his last letter said, if he had received that letter from any of the people that he sent it to what would he have done?"

"He…he would have tried to come get us." Hermione was openly crying now.

"Do you see why he would feel the way he does, and why he wants to start over somewhere else?"

Hermione could only nod and Rebecca put her hand on her shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up over this, you made a mistake. I doubt if it was your first and I'm pretty sure it won't be your last. Take some of your own advice and talk to someone. Do you have someone you can talk to?"

She nodded again. "My mother."

"Do you have a way to get to her?"

"Mr. Weasley will take me, it's probably better if I leave for a while anyway. He and Bill are really mad at their family right now."

"Yeah, I had to put up wards to silence the yelling coming into Ginny's room while we were talking. Taking you home might give him some time to cool down a little, so why don't you go ask him. I need to be leaving, I'll talk to Harry and see what he says, I want you to prepare yourself for the possibility that he'll say no. It doesn't mean that at some point down the road you won't get the chance to talk to him, but like Mr. Weasley he'll need some time to cool down, ok?"

Hermione said yes they said goodbye and Rebecca left for Tonks'.

XXXXXXXX

Harry was cooking dinner while Rebecca and Tonks were sitting on stools all of them discussing the day that Tonks and Harry had. At dinner the night before they had decided that the two of them would go to Rebecca's house this morning and spend part of the day just wandering the neighborhood so he could see what was where. They had also decided that he needed to get a visit to the constables out of the way. After Rebecca had finished her appointment with Ginny the three of them made their way to the station in Little Whinging where they met with a constable and a lady from child services.

The constable had told them about the interviews with the Dursley's neighbors and how in the process they had to open a different case against Dudley and several of his friends, four of which were going to testify against him. When the neighborhood kids found out who the police were asking about they had started talking about the bullying going on and when the parents heard their children, well they say that an avalanche starts with a small pebble, or in this case a small child. The parents were also surprised to find out that Harry didn't go to St. Brutus', and that there was no record of him going to any other school either.

When Mrs. Collins asked Harry about this he told his only lie in the entire interview. He told them that he wasn't allowed to go to school after he turned eleven, that they were afraid his freakishness would get them into trouble with the schools. They just kept him in the house while school was in session. After hearing him tell them about the rest of his life with the Dursley's they had no problem believing the lie. She had then asked the two ladies to leave and asked Harry about how he felt living with them and if he would want to live with Rebecca permanently. She also asked about Tonks' name, when he told them about her not liking her first name she naturally asked what it was. He said 'I've seen her mad and want no part of that; if you want to risk your limbs you can ask her.' The looks on their faces made him explain that the times he'd seen her mad were on his behalf and that she'd been looking out for him each time, but she really, really hated her name and that the only people he knew who could call her by it were her parents.

Before they left the station all of the paperwork for Harry's guardianship had been started and they had been given permission to go ahead with Harry's move to Rebecca's that weekend and they had the names and numbers of a couple of tutors that Mrs. Collins had recommended. Now they were just waiting on Bill and Madam Bones to arrive for dinner with news on how things went in getting the last Horcrux.

Bill arrived first with Fleur on his arm. He joined Harry while the ladies went to the sitting room to talk about whatever they talk about when guys aren't around. Harry was surprised when Bill jumped right in and helped him with the cooking and asked about it.

"Well, being the oldest it seemed that there was always a baby in the house. With seven of us you could probably have guessed that. With Mum always having her time divided between the house work and the baby's she needed help so Charlie, Percy and I learned our way around the kitchen when we were young. Of course when the twins were old enough to learn is when the kitchen became off limits to the kids. It took us a week to clean up after that first cooking lesson. Not even magic could get all of the potatoes out of every nook and cranny. Before that she was determined that all of us would be able to take care of ourselves properly when we got older. After that she was determined that she needed to marry off the twins and Ron before they graduated or they would starve to death."

Harry laughed. "That must be why it looks like she protects her kitchen with a passion, I know I wouldn't let that pair near my food."

"True, but Mum wasn't always like she is now. She used to give all of us more freedom and wasn't nearly as protective. That seemed to start after Charlie and I started working. You know Charlie's job is dangerous, and mine is just as bad if not worse. I've seen several friends seriously injured because they let their attention wander. Mum doesn't like either of our jobs and seems determined that the rest of them are going to be ministry workers like Dad and Percy, as long as they're safe jobs. No Aurors for this family. I just hope that the twins don't get jobs there, the whole place would be rubble before the end of their first week."

"I don't think you have to worry about the ministry, Diagon Alley on the other hand might be in trouble."

Bill turned to him. "What do you know? Those two have been buying things that they shouldn't be able to afford to create their jokes. Do you know where they got the money?" Harry started to look nervous. "You do know something. Dad has been grilling me because he thinks the money came from me, so start spilling."

"Uhm, promise not to let your Mum know?"

"That depends on where the money came from."

Harry looked down and took a deep breath. "Igavethemthemoney."

"What?"

"I gave them the money. It's the winnings from the Tournament, I didn't want it and they'll probably be brilliant at a joke shop."

Bill started laughing. "Remus told me that the twins have a lifetime ban on pranking you because of something huge that you did for them. Now I know just how huge. I have to tell Dad before he starts to think they stole it, but we'll both keep it from Mum as long as possible and try to give you some warning if she finds out. You may want to have plans set up for getting out of the country though."

They had the table set and were just putting the food on when Madam Bones showed up smiling like she'd just had her fondest dream come true.

Once everyone was seated Rebecca spoke. "Ok, what's got you so happy?"

"I just came from the talking with Fleur's father. That man is a logistical genius, thank you for putting me in contact with him."

Fleur smiled. "Papa will be pleased to hear that. He loves his job but enjoys branching out sometimes."

"Well he's sure saved us. He's somehow gotten a hundred Aurors from all over the continent and will have them here on Thursday morning ready for a fight. I promised to let you know that he and your mother will be coming with them. He wants to spend the weekend with you and mentioned something about using these Aurors for a more important mission when they finish the one we have planned. Something about some guy who needs to be tested to find out if he's good enough for his daughter." Bill started choking on his food. "I wouldn't worry too much. I told him that I knew you and felt that a hundred Aurors might not be enough so I volunteered another fifty just to give you a proper challenge as long as he had his help me interview anyone interested in Susan."

While Fleur patted his back to help him Tonks started offering advice on spells for crowd control while Harry swore that dodging was the only way to stay safe and they both agreed that he should start practicing immediately.

Fleur tried to ease his panic. "Non, Papa will not be bad to you if he knows that I am happy. It is Mama that you will worry about; she brings out the wedding plans after the first date." This only increased his panicked look. "Mama feels that if you don not run you may be worth getting to know better."

Amelia smiled. "Oh I'm definitely going to enjoy meeting them. I'll probably need to take notes."

Bill got himself under control enough to change the subject. "So you'll be ready to go on Thursday?"

"Yes, I've already talked to Slipknife; he's going to go over everything with you in the morning. He wants Ginny to come in Thursday morning for her ritual and then have Harry there at two in the afternoon. They want to do his ritual at the same time as they do it on the others. We'll attack after that with a hundred sixty five Aurors; I'm meeting him that morning and again at noon to make sure of his location."

Harry asked. "I thought the others were just going to be destroyed. Why are we saving them?"

It was Bill who answered. "The locket that I found belonged to Slytherin, the Ring has a stone in it that is called the resurrection stone, and the goblins say that it can bring the dead back part way. It's part of a fairy tale that parents tell their children. The goblet belonged to Helga Hufflpuff and the tiara that we collected today was Rowena Ravenclaw's. It seems that Voldemort has a fixation with the founders."

Tonks noticed something. "You said his name."

"I figured that if Harry could say it without going into convulsions then I should be able to also. I've had to practice quite a bit though, old habits and all that. Anyway the goblins have promoted me because I brought them in on this. When I was granted my transfer I figured that my career was pretty much over, they weren't happy with it because of the amount of treasure I've been able to get to in the field. As odd as it sounds I seem to owe my job to Voldemort and his fixation, not to mention you guys for thinking of me when you found out about Harry's scar. So thank you all, I owe you."

"You're the one who's getting this thing out of my head; I think we can at least call it even if I don't owe you. How are you going to coordinate the attack?"

"Slipknife assured me that we would be able to hear his scream when it happened. I'm supposed to warn you that it will be extremely painful for you, but you should take pleasure that your enemy will feel every bit of your pain and also all of his own as his soul is destroyed. I hope to never see a smiling goblin again, it looked like he was about to eat me, but he was taking a lot of pride in the fact that they were going to inflict so much pain on You Know Who."

The rest of the meal passed with everyone being told what had happened that day with Harry and the ladies and about their plans for his move that weekend. Before everyone said good night Harry found some parchment and wrote something out before giving it to Bill.

"I thought this might help you with the parents this weekend."

Bill looked at it and found a beef bourguignon recipe. Smiling he said. "Thanks this might just keep me alive." Then everyone left for the night.