Chapter Three: The Trio's Tale
When they arrived at Potter Manor, Harry asked Hermione to take down the Fidelius Charm. She did so, but when she was finished, she swayed a little and so Ron scooped her up into his arms as they all made their way inside.
Once inside, the twins each let out a low whistle before Harry led them all into the Drawing Room. There, they found Remus and Tonks with Ted and Andromeda, who were all playing with Teddy.
'Is that my godson, Remus?' asked Harry, startling them all.
Remus and Tonks both stood up and a move toward Harry, but Tonks got there first and gave him a big hug. Remus hugged him too, when Tonks finally let him go. Harry was then given Teddy to hold. He had never held a baby before and could not help but be a little nervous. But Sirius helped him and told him the correct way to hold Teddy.
'Hello, Teddy. I'm your godfather. I'm Harry. That means that it's my job to buy you your first broomstick, and when your older, I have to go out and buy you another one, but this one will be the best broomstick in the whole world. An international standard broomstick, just for you, Teddy,' said Harry to his tiny godson.
'I don't know if getting him a broomstick will be a good idea if he inherits Dora's clumsiness,' said Sirius.
'OI, I'll have you know I'm pretty good on a broomstick!' replied Tonks indignantly.
'That's right, all your accidents happen with both feet on the ground, don't they, Nymphie?' teased Sirius.
'You are such a c –' began Tonks.
'Now, now, not in front of Teddy,' said Sirius, cutting her off.
'Agreed, that's no way to talk in front of a baby, Nymphadora,' said Andromeda.
'Quite right,' agreed Mrs Weasley.
Tonks could see that she was not going to win against her mother, so she took Teddy back from Harry and sat down again. More chairs were quickly conjured and everybody had sat down.
'Right, I suppose you all want to know what the three of us have been doing for the last nine months?' said Harry as he sat down and Ginny sat on his lap.
'It would help us to know at least why you broke into Gringotts,' said Kingsley.
Harry looked around the room. He saw that Ron was sitting in a chair with Hermione on his lap. Fred, George, Charlie, and Percy were on a couch to themselves. Mr and Mrs Weasley were sharing a couch, as were Ted and Andromeda. Sirius had Amelia on his lap, while Tonks sat on Remus' lap while still holding Teddy in her arms. Bill had Fleur sitting on his lap too. As Kingsley, Susan, and Professor McGonagall were sitting in armchairs.
'Where are the Dursleys?' asked Harry noticing they were missing.
'Upstairs in their rooms,' replied Remus.
'Fine, but there are still people missing,' said Harry.
'Who are you talking about, Harry?' asked Kingsley.
'Professor Snape; and, I suppose, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy,' replied Harry.
'What! Why would you want Narcissa and Ferret boy here? Snape I can understand, but not two people who did nothing while –' Ron said before Harry cut across him.
'Ron, they are victims of Voldemort just as much as anyone.'
'Well, it's your house, but don't expect me to be nice to either of them,' said Ron.
'Harry, I understand that you want Snape and the Malfoy boy here, however, it is impossible. They are in Ministry holding cells awaiting trial for killing Albus, and for being Death Eaters,' said Kingsley.
'I don't give a damn, Minister, you get them here, or I won't tell you anything. It's as simple as that,' Harry said fiercely.
'Kingsley, you can release Severus and Draco into my custody until they get their fair trials, I will pay for their bail,' said Sirius.
Kingsley sighed and said, 'First of all, nobody here calls me Minister. My name is Kingsley, we are all friends here. I shall fetch Snape and young Malfoy, if you'll come with me, Sirius?'
Sirius gave him a nod and he got up from under Amelia, who decided to go with them and the three of them left.
'Professor, is Mrs Malfoy still at Hogwarts?' asked Harry.
'I believe so, she was considerably upset as her son was taken away,' replied Professor McGonagall.
Harry then summoned Abby and asked her to escort Narcissa Malfoy to the Manor, and she obeyed him with a bow and a loud crack.
Abby returned with Narcissa Malfoy before Sirius and the others.
'May I ask what I am doing here?' asked Narcissa.
'Please, sit down, Mrs Malfoy. You are here because I am arranging – along with Sirius, for your son's release. They are also bringing Professor Snape here too,' replied Harry.
Narcissa did not know what to say so she sat and waited quietly along with the rest of them.
It was forty-five minutes later when Sirius, Amelia, and Kingsley returned with Draco and Snape. Draco immediately ran to his mother who held him tight as Snape watched on before sitting down.
Once everyone was sitting comfortably, Harry began. 'Well, it all starts with a Prophecy made before I was born. I found out its full contents after my fifth year. During my sixth year, I had several meetings with Professor Dumbledore. We discussed Voldemort, or if you prefer, Tom Riddle. He showed me his parents. His witch mother, and muggle father; Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle Senior. Merope Gaunt used a love potion to ensnare Tom Riddle Senior. They ended up getting married and Merope eventually fell pregnant. She stopped giving her husband the love potion believing he would stay with her for their baby. She was mistaken. He buggered off and left her with nothing. Merope was forced to sell her priceless family heirlooms for a pittance and went to an orphanage. It was there that she gave birth to Tom Marvolo Riddle, more commonly known as Lord Voldemort. Shortly after giving birth to him, she died leaving him to be raised in the orphanage.
'Dumbledore showed me the memory of the day he first met him. Tom Riddle was eleven years old, friendless, and a bully. He was independent and did not want anyone else to help him when he went to Diagon Alley to buy his school things. He also liked to collect trophies of his bullying. When he was nearly finished with school, he approached the then Headmaster about becoming a teacher. He wanted the Defence job, but was told he was too young and to reapply in a few years. When he left school, he went to work in Borgin and Burke's. However, by this time, he had already killed his father and paternal grandparents, and began to find ways to conquer death.
'He made Horcruxes – Seven of them – six on purpose – one by accident. He split his soul into eight pieces in the end. He meant to create only six, leaving his soul in seven pieces. For those of you who don't know what a Horcrux is; it is an object used by a Dark Wizard to encase a portion of their soul. This is done by committing murder. Then using some Dark spell, you encase it in the object. He murdered people to make himself immortal using these Horcruxes.
'However, by my sixth year, two Horcruxes had already been destroyed, a diary and a ring. The diary had been placed into the hands of an innocent eleven year old girl, who was forced by the soul fragment in the diary to open the Chamber of Secrets in my second year. I destroyed the diary by stabbing it with a Basilisk fang. The ring was destroyed by Professor Dumbledore, but not before leaving him cursed. During the meetings with Dumbledore, he showed more memories. One in particular showed Tom Riddle charming an old witch by the name of Hepzibah Smith. She made the mistake of showing Tom her most prized treasures. Helga Hufflepuff's Cup, and a locket that had belonged to Tom's mother, and, his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. Two days after Tom's visit, Hepzibah died of poisoning, and her prized treasures stolen.
'Slytherin's Locket and Hufflepuff's Cup became Horcruxes three and four. Dumbledore and I speculated about the others. He felt sure Nagini, his snake, was Horcrux five, but with no idea what Horcrux six could be. After all, the only known relics of Gryffindor are his Sword and the Sorting Hat, but they were perfectly safe from Riddle's hands. And we could not be sure if he had managed to get his hands on anything belonging to Rowena Ravenclaw, though later on, I would discover that he found the lost Diadem, and that became Horcrux six.
'The night Dumbledore died, the two of us went to a cave. After making it through the outer defences, we arrived on an island where there was a basin full of potion. The potion had to be drunk in order to get to the Horcrux. Dumbledore made me force feed him the potion when it got too much for him, and when the whole basin was drunk, only then could the Horcrux be taken. However, after the events of the evening, I discovered that the locket in the basin was a fake, and not the locket that had belonged to Salazar Slytherin.
'Then we fast forward to the Wedding of Bill of Fleur. Well, the day before, anyway. Ron, Hermione and I had been planning as to where to look for the Horcruxes. We really did not know where to start, but Ron raised an interesting point in our planning sessions – well, two actually. One; How do you destroy a Horcrux? The answer to that is that they can only be destroyed by incredibly powerful and dangerous substances. Basilisk venom, and Fiendfyre. The second point that Ron made was; where do we get Basilisk venom from? But then Ron answered his own question. After all, was there not a perfectly dead Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets? In whose fangs its venom would be contained? So we hatched a plan. Shortly after one am on my birthday, the three of us snuck out of Black Cottage to Hogsmeade. Once there, we used a handy pocket knife to break in to Honeyduke's and use a secret passageway into the school. We knew the school was empty thanks to the Marauder's Map. So we made our way to the Chamber, got the fangs, and left the way we came, before sneaking back into Black Cottage.'
Kingsley was writing as much of this down as possible. He could not help but be impressed at the trios' ingenuity, as Harry took several sips of Pumpkin Juice before continuing.
He told them about what happened in the café on Tottenham Court Road after they had left the wedding when the Death Eaters crashed it. Harry also told them about the measures Hermione had taken to ensure her parents safety. He told them about staying at Grimmauld Place, and what Kreacher told him about Regulus. Hearing this, Sirius raised a glass of Firewhiskey to his brother before Harry carried on. Harry then spoke of their chat with Mundungus Fletcher and what he did with the locket.
Ron chipped in with the details on their plan to break in to the Ministry and steal the locket form Umbridge, and the carrying out of the plan, and how he used a Basilisk fang to destroy the soul fragment contained within the locket after Harry had opened it using Parseltongue.
Hermione then spoke of how the trail had dried up and their unsuccessful trip into a wizarding village and Ron sacrificing himself so that she and Harry could escape, as well as Ron coming back on Christmas Day by calling her on the enchanted mirrors. She also told them all about going to Godric's Hollow, and what happened there and afterward, about accidentally breaking Harry's wand, but getting him to safety and healing him where the snake had bitten him.
Ron then spoke about how they went back to Grimmauld Place for the remainder of winter after they had been to see Xeno Lovegood and everything that had happened there.
Harry then spoke of their capture and taking to Malfoy Manor. As Harry spoke, Ron could feel Hermione trembling in his arms and so he rubbed her back gently to soothe her and she calmed down. Harry told them all it was his fault and of how Hermione was tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange, and their escape to Shell Cottage. He then told them all about why they broke into Gringotts and how they did it, including their deal with Griphook, before stopping to say that they knew the rest, and that they had gone to Hogwarts to find and destroy the Diadem of Ravenclaw in the Room of Requirement, and about Crabbe casting the Fiendfyre that killed him and destroyed the Diadem.
But then was the difficult part. Harry then told them what was in the memories given to him by Professor Snape. He told them that he too, was a Horcrux and that it was essential that Voldemort be the one destroy the soul fragment attached to him since Halloween nineteen eighty-one. He told them of how he walked to the Forbidden Forest and how he used the Resurrection Stone to protect him from the Dementors as he made his way to Voldemort, and that when he got there and just before Voldemort cast the Killing Curse, he thought of Ginny.
He then told them about the strange encounter with Dumbledore in some kind of purgatory. That he had the choice of going on, or coming back to get rid of Voldemort once and for all. He then told them that Narcissa had been told to check him for any vital signs and had then told Voldemort that he was dead.
'Anyway, Neville killed Nagini, and that left Tom Riddle as mortal as the next man. So, when his Killing Curse rebounded upon him, he was screwed, and is now in a place he fears,' finished Harry.
There was silence until Fred said, 'That was the most amazing story I've ever heard.'
'I agree, someone out there could make a lot of money if they wrote an entire series of books about your life, Harry,' said George.
'Well, his Hogwarts years at least,' said Fred.
'They could even turn the books into a successful film franchise, couldn't they?' said Sirius.
The only people who did not laugh were those whom did not know what a film was, and Mrs Weasley.
Once the laughing had ceased, Kingsley spoke again, 'In the last year, you three have broken into Hogwarts – twice, the Ministry of Magic, and Gringotts. I don't know whether to arrest you or hire you as security consultants! But I think your talents are best suited elsewhere. Any job in the Ministry the three of you want, you've got it, no exceptions, and that offer is open ended. So, Harry, what do you intend to do next?'
'That is a bloody good question, Kingsley. How about a nice, relaxing summer with my family and friends?' replied Harry.
'I'd say you earned it, Harry, along with the reward for bringing down Voldemort,' said Kingsley.
'Reward?' asked Harry.
'Harry, for the last thirty years the Ministry of Magic has wanted him dead or alive. The reward is quite substantial as it has been building up for so many years. I believe it's around the thirty million Galleon mark …'
'You want to give me the reward?' asked Harry.
'Who else?' replied Kingsley.
'You could split it three ways. One third to Ron, one third to Hermione, and then split the rest in half, half to Hogwarts, and the other half to St. Mungo's,' suggested Harry.
'Done, so that's ten to Ron, ten to Hermione, five for Hogwarts, and five for St. Mungo's,' said Kingsley as he wrote out the Ministry of Magic Cheques to Ron, Hermione and Hogwarts and then passing them out to Ron, Hermione, and Professor McGonagall.
However, Ron and Hermione seemed reluctant to accept the Cheques.
'Harry, we can't take this …' said Ron, as Hermione nodded in agreement with him.
'You can, and you will. I owe you two my life. You are my best friends. Call it a gift,' said Harry.
Ron and Hermione could both see that it was useless to resist and so they took the Cheques from Kingsley.
But then Ron asked how they were going to be able to deposit them if the goblins were after their blood.
'I think,' said Bill, 'that if we tell them that Voldemort used their bank to hide a Dark object in one of their vaults, and give them back sole control of Gringott's, they might be persuaded to let you off. Plus, from what I hear, Voldemort killed about a dozen goblins when they informed Bellatrix Lestrange of the break-in, so they'll be pleased that you killed him.'
'I think you might be right, Bill. I don't suppose you fancy the job of being the new Head of the Goblin Liaison Office?' said Kingsley.
'You'd be better off asking Ron, he can actually speak Gobbledygook. Mine's awful,' Bill replied.
'Ron can speak Gobbledygook?' asked the twins in shocked voices.
'Yes, he can. As well as French and German,' supplied Hermione, 'plus a few more languages, I suspect. So leave him alone.'
Sirius then spoke up. 'Don't worry about your Gobbledygook, Bill, we'll fix that. So, why don't you accept the offer?'
Bill, slightly perplexed, just nodded.
Kingsley then turned to Amelia and said, 'I'm looking for a Deputy Minister, Amelia, would you be interested in filling the post?'
'I would be honoured, thank you,' she replied.
Kingsley then turned Arthur and said, 'Arthur, would you be interested in heading up DMLE? I know you'd prefer something in Muggle Liaison, but I need someone I can trust in this position …'
'I'll do whatever I can to help, you know that, Kingsley,' replied Arthur.
Kingsley then turned to Percy and said, 'Percy, would you be interested in being my Personal Assistant?'
'Of course, Minister,' replied Percy.
'So, the question remains; what about you three? What do you want to do?' asked Kingsley.
'Well, there are funerals to attend,' began Ron, 'then after that, Hermione and I need to go to Australia to bring home her parents, after that, I dunno.'
'Harry?' asked Kingsley.
'Well, I've always wanted to be an Auror, so …' said Harry.
'Of course,' began Professor McGonagall, 'the three of you are more than welcome to return to Hogwarts to complete your educations. That way, you will be able to have a break from Dark Wizards for at least a year.'
'Does that mean you hope that Hogwarts will be able to reopen in time for September the first?' asked Hermione.
'I should think so, we have the better part of four months to repair the damage, and what with the donation from Mr Potter, we should be able to acquire new books for the Library, amongst other things,' replied the Headmistress.
Hermione looked at Ron and Harry and said, 'Would it be all right if we could think about it?'
'Of course you may, Miss Granger,' said Professor McGonagall.
Kingsley then turned to Professor Snape and Draco Malfoy and said, 'I have released the two of you into Sirius' custody. From what Harry and Sirius tell me, you, Draco, were as much a victim of Voldemort as anyone. However, you will still have to stand trial. Snape, as I understand it, you and Albus planned his death together. You killed him to not only, save him from more sadistic predators, but also to gain Lord Voldemort's trust. You will still have to have a trial, and you shall receive a fair one. You have my word on that.'
'I do not think it will make a difference. Whenever people see me, all they're going to see is the man who killed Albus Dumbledore, and I very much doubt I will ever be allowed to teach anymore,' said Snape.
'Severus, I told you I would help you in any way I can, and I stick by that. I will represent you in front of the Wizengamot, and I'm sure with Harry's testimony, you will be set free. Likewise, for you, Draco,' said Sirius.
'Why are you helping me?' asked Draco.
'We're family, it's what we do,' replied Sirius, 'anyway, as I'm staying here, so are you two. Harry, is that all right with you?'
'Yes, I'll have Abby show the three of you a suite – ABBY!'
Abby appeared at once. 'Yes, Master Harry?' she squeaked.
'Would you kindly show Professor Snape, Narcissa Malfoy, and her son, Draco, to some rooms?'
'Right away, Master Harry, would you please follow me?' she asked of the three of them.
Narcissa was about to speak when Sirius cut across her.
'If you're worried about clothes, I can get you some from the Manor, Cissy, you too, Draco. I can get some clothes from your house for you too, Severus.'
'Thank you, Sirius,' said Narcissa.
Both Snape and Draco thanked Sirius before led away by Abby.
'Right, is that everything?' asked Mrs Weasley, 'I would like to go back to the Burrow and get started on the cleaning there, Harry, Hermione, you are both welcome to join us, and I can have a talk with my two youngest about their sleeping arrangements …'
Everyone was beginning to stand and stretch their muscles ready to leave, when Ron spoke up.
'Actually, before we leave, Hermione and I would like to make an announcement.'
'You're engaged!' squealed Mrs Weasley excited at the prospect of planning another wedding.
'No,' replied Ron.
'You had better not have gotten Hermione pregnant, Ronald Weasley!' warned his mother.
'No, not that either,' Ron said, getting irritated.
'Well, let's hear it then!' said Mrs Weasley, getting impatient.
Ron then shared a look with Hermione who nodded and said, 'Last July, on the seventh to be precise, Hermione and I got married.'