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Chapter 5 – Aftermath

Pandemonium reigned supreme the day the article came out and many things happened and happened quickly.

Unfortunately for Snape, Voldemort had received and read his copy of the Prophet before Snape did. He had been summoned immediately and Dumbledore, who had also read his copy after Voldemort, hadn't even had the time to summon his minion.

Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour had received a special edition before the usual delivery and thus could move quickly to catch the guilty. They met Cornelius Fudge as he arrived at his office. He never read the paper until he arrived at the Ministry, got settled in his office, had his coffee and pastry presented to him and began his day.

Delores Umbridge had already been arrested so she was not able to warn him about the article. Percy Weasley had only been detained but not arrested as there wasn't anything to charge him with – yet – as he was only a lackey doing the bidding of the Minister.

An urgent message had been sent to Lucius Malfoy in the Minister's name in the very early hours of the morning so that Lucius would not have had the time to read the newspaper nor to check in with Fudge. This was the only way Bones thought they would be able to capture and detain the wily Malfoy.

From the pensive memories Amelia and Scrimgeour had viewed they had been able to recognize several Aurors who were present at the meeting held the day of Potter's trial. Hestia Jones had been called in the night before, administered Veritaserum and had given all the names of the other Aurors who were members of the Order.

They had all been called in immediately and then detained until such time as Bones decided what to do with them. They had compromised their position as an Auror by joining the Order but considering whose names were on the list, she wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt and a chance to explain their reasons and actions. With Voldemort truly back they would need every able-bodied, competent Auror they could get.

Malfoy had been charged and administered Veritaserum before he could utter "I want my solicitor." He sang like a bird, confessed to lying about being Imperiused, buying his way out of Azkaban and multiple counts of bribing Fudge and many other Ministry employees, most of the Hogwarts Board of Governor Members and several Wizengamot members. Bones knew the man was very rich but with all the bribing he had done it was a wonder he still had a knut left to his name.

Bones hadn't made a move against Dumbledore yet as she was much too busy handling the Ministry and arresting "suspected" Death Eaters. There was also the matter of giving protection to the offices of the Daily Prophet as it would be a target if Voldemort decided to retaliate.

Another concern was where was Harry Potter? From what Hestia Jones had told her Dumbledore still had no idea where the boy was or who had helped him escape.

Although a tough old bird, Bones could not help but feel sorry and worry about the boy. After all he had been through with the tournament, seeing a classmate killed before his eyes and then people trying to blame him for it, witnessing the actual resurrection of the Dark Lord, being sent back to his dreadful Muggle relatives, nearly killed by Dementors and then brought illegally before the assembled Wizengamot and railroaded by Fudge and that horrible Umbridge, then to see his wand snapped and told he was expelled, his trust fund confiscated and basically being flung out of the Magical World, well no wonder he threw eggs in the face of Molly Weasley when the loud-mouthed hag started yelling at him.

She had never liked Molly Prewett and after the slutty hag had managed to snag sweet Arthur Weasley she had almost asked him to be checked out for love potions before he actually married her. However, her brother Edgar had talked her out of it but she had always regretted not doing so.

From what she heard Dumbledore telling Snape, the Weasleys were not only in Dumbledore's pocket, but they had isolated the boy and were controlling him and using him and Ronald was actually being paid for services rendered. She had put Molly on her list of people to "interview" and had every intention of administering Veritaserum to the conniving bitch.

Susan had been telling her many unsettling stories about Harry Potter's time at Hogwarts. Although Susan had been angry at first when Potter's name came out of the Goblet as a fourth champion, taking away the euphoria of Hufflepuff Cedric Diggory being chosen the "real" champion, Potter had insisted he hadn't put his name into the goblet.

Susan was unsure whether or not to believe him as it didn't fit his personality at all. She hadn't worn any of the Potter Stinks buttons which Draco Malfoy was giving away as many of her house mates were, but she had been too afraid to make waves in defense of Potter so had said nothing, except to her Aunt.

Fudge had gone out of his way to prevent the Aurors from investigating Potter's claims about the Dark Lord's return, and had the only witnessed kissed before anyone could question him. This action on Fudge's part had allowed Dumbledore to prevent even Amelia Bones from having access to Potter.

Bones knew that Potter's mail had been either rerouted or delivered to someone other than Potter. Dumbledore had been doing it for the years before the boy had come to Hogwarts "for the boy's protection" from uncaptured or unknown Death Eaters, the press, rabid fans, etc. Apparently he wasn't allowed to receive mail at Hogwarts either because she and many others had been trying to send the boy mail without success.

Bones had tried to get her niece to talk to the boy and inform him that she, Amelia Bones in her position as head of the DMLE, needed to speak with him regarding several things which had happened in the past four years, but poor Susan had been prevented from ever talking with Harry Potter. Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley were his shadows and rumor had it that unless he was in Gryffindor House, Ron Weasley even followed him into the boys' loo.

Those two simply never let anybody near Potter unless it was a fellow Gryffindor. Rumor also had it that Gryffindor House had been informed that although Potter would be polite to his other housemates he only wished to have Ron, Hermione and the Weasley Twins as his friends and to some extent, his team mates.

Susan had reported to her aunt that both the Weasley Twins and Ron and chased her and Hannah Abbott away from Harry on several occasions with Ron actually threatening them to "keep away from Harry you worthless badgers – he doesn't want to even know losers like you Puffs."

Bones had tried to get her former Head of House, Pomona Sprout, to assist her but was told that "The Headmaster refuses to let anyone contact the boy. Filius and I, as well as certain other teachers, had to swear an oath to that effect. Apparently it is for the boy's protection," she had huffed, "but most of us think it is just Albus trying to control every aspect of the boy's life and to keep him isolated."

For all she knew the boy could be dead. The only facts known about him were that Dumbledore didn't have him and from what Lucius Malfoy had said, neither did the Dark Lord. Hestia Jones had revealed that Black was innocent and the Order was using one of his family homes for headquarters but it was under a Fidelius cast by Dumbledore so even if a Member of the Black Family tried to find it, they couldn't nor could they lead anyone there so that left out Auror Tonks.

Apparently that was where most of the Weasleys were hiding as well as the Granger girl and anybody else who Potter was allowed to have contact with. No doubt that would be where Dumbledore would go to if he needed a bolt hole.

They had checked with the Dursleys, Potter's dreadful Muggle relatives. Auror Dawlish had been in charge of interviewing them. Apparently they had been robbed of most of what they held dear, including every scrap of food they had in the house, their credit cards had been taken and "maxed out" – whatever that meant - jewelry and important papers were taken and Potter was being blamed. Things had just started getting ugly when Death Eaters attacked the house.

Apparently the wards had been broken about a few days before the article came out. Two Unspeakables had been checking the famous wards set up by Dumbledore when the attack hit. Both barely managed to get into the house to alert Dawlish and he managed to get Petunia port keyed out while another Auror grabbed Dudley. Vernon had not been so lucky.

Petunia and her son Dudley were horrible people, even for Muggles. The things they both told under Veritaserum were enough to make even the most harden Auror want to curse them.

However, just before the Veritaserum wore off of Petunia she started getting sick, which was rather unusual even in a Muggle. A healer was called, an examination was done and lo and behold, several rather suspicious charms had been placed on her. It was the same with her son. There were hostility charms directed to Harry Potter.

Once the Death Eaters had left Privet Drive and Vernon's body had been taken away to the local Muggle morgue, the Obliviators had been called in to clean up the mess. Once an all clear was received, Bones sent back the Unspeakables to do a thorough check of the house. The place was filled with more nasty charms, spells, hexes, etc., all compelling the Dursleys to hate Harry Potter and treat him with hostility and downright cruelty.

The only traces of any sort of blood wards had been powered on Potter's magic. They only prevented people from apparation, port keys from working and some very strong notice-me-not charms directed to magic users only.

Now Amelia Bones could call in Dumbledore for "questioning" hopefully before he could either rally his vast political power base or, in the current situation, take refuge at Order headquarters.

It was going to be a very interesting week.