Chapter 24: A witch is revealed!

For disclaimer and author notes please see chapter 1.

1988-06-22 23:30 UTC, Kithurst Close, Crawley

"Sirius, Remus", yelled the Phantom as he walked in to Sirius's house. Hermione's parents were there too, but Hobby didn't care; in fact it was better this way.

All four adults ran to him, because he had two kids in his arms; he was holding both of them up, apparently with only a little difficulty, as if it were more inconvenience than strain.

"Where did you find them? Oh my God they're both hurt, we should take them to a hospital", said Mrs Granger.

"No, we'll fix them right here", said the Phantom.

It was only then that they noticed.

"You... your fa-", she spluttered, while her husband stared in shock. "Why is your face so unfocused? What kind of makeup is this?"

"And what exactly are you doing to my daughter, waving that stick around?"

Sirius and Remus did not know what to do. They knew the Phantom had very little respect for the law in its strictest sense, but why was he breaking the statute of secrecy?

"Got any pepper-up?", he asked. "I need two vials".

Sirius left the room and came back a minute later with two vials. "Won't work on muggles, you know", he said.

"Yup, but she's not one. She's a muggle-born", smirked the Phantom.

Then, under his breath, very quietly, he said to himself, "and once again she saved him".

It took them a long time to convince the good doctors that their precious daughter was a "witch", a word they had hitherto only associated with either an insult or myth. That she, and indeed all the four men (well, three men and a boy) in that house were wizards.

Most unusually, Mrs Granger's first question - after the shock had worn off and acceptance started settling in - was "why do the men get a cool name like 'wizards', and the women get stuck with 'witch'?"

No one had an answer!

It would eventually take the better part of the next day for the two kids to properly recover. Potions and healing could fix bodily injuries in a trice, but the wizarding world had always been somewhat short on mental health issues like shock, fear, and so on. And even more so when it came to children.

About all the adults could do was give them time, while helping each other come to terms with what happened, and what nearly happened.

Remus was the worst hit, of course, because he was the one who vetoed the idea of wards.

"I'm sorry Sirius, this is all my fault. I should have agreed to let you put up wards".

Sirius knew this was coming, and he had his argument ready.

"How far could the best wards go?"

"The whole street, for sure".

"What about school? Going to ward that too? What about the occasional school trip? Would you ask for plans and ward all those places before the school bus got there?", said Sirius.

"The fact is", he continued, "there was nothing we could have done. We'll just need to protect them better".

"And meanwhile", he continued, "best get some sleep; we have a Wizengamot session tomorrow".

1988-06-23 08:00 UTC, Ministry of Magic, Wizengamot meeting room

The world outside was not going to stand still though. The connections between the marked death-eaters and the rest of the populace - at least the purebloods - were weak but they were there, and somehow the rumour had gotten started that something had happened to all of them. And then, when several members of the Wizengamot did not turn up for the emergency meeting called by Lord Black, that rumour gained wings.

Sirius, with the permission of the Chief Witch, took the podium. The mood in the room was not hostile - it couldn't be, since there wasn't a single death-eater in the room. There may have been a few sympathisers scattered about but that was it.

"Yesterday afternoon, around 3pm, Antonin Dolohov, one of the death-eaters freed by the now imprisoned Fudge, kidnapped my godson Harry Potter, and a muggle friend of his who happened to be with him at the time".

Remus raised an eyebrow, but did not say anything. Now that Sirius had done it, he realised it made sense to downplay Hermione's role in this.

"During the approximately nine-hour ordeal, he subjected my godson to the torture curse. I'm going to give you a moment to let that sink in: a seven year old child under the cruciatus", he said. His voice was pitched low and quiet, but for all that, the effect was much more than if he had bellowed at them.

"The ransom note we got said that the Phantom had to give himself up if we wanted Harry back. Now, I know many of you don't quite realise what this Phantom is up to - by his own declaration, he has acted outside the law during Fudge's regime, for instance. But here's the proof, for me, that he is someone I would willingly trust with my life."

Sirius paused for effect. Of course very few people knew that the Phantom was the one who had pulled him out of Azkaban; no point going there.

"He came to our house last evening, shortly after the ransom note was received, and told us he would reveal himself and give himself up today, as the ransom note demanded, if he was unable to rescue Harry and his friend in the interim".

The members were silent, waiting for more.

"I don't really know how he rescued them. But his attempt to rescue them was simplicity in itself. I have no idea how he did it, but he basically made a list of every single death-eater - regardless of whether they went to Azkaban in 1981, like Dolohov, or stayed free, like Malfoy, and kidnapped them and every member of their family."

There were loud protests from some people, pleased grins from a very few, and shock on the faces of most of the members. The majority, however, seemed to feel that this was way over the line.

Minister Bones decided to interrupt. "I thought he had promised he would stay within the law if I became minister?"

"Madam Bones, he has the highest respect for you, but this was provocation well beyond his tolerance."

"Where is he, Lord Black? He did make a public statement that he would reveal himself today; is he not going to do so?"

"No, Minister. That statement was made under the threat of Harry being killed. Now that that specific threat is gone, he feels no obligation to do what he had offered to do under duress."

Ah well, can't win 'em all, thought Madam Bones. She nodded and sat down.

"The Phantom has give me a written statement that he has asked me to read out, which I will do now", said Sirius.

He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket unfolded it, and started reading.

To the members of the Wizengamot,

All the people I have taken into custody while trying to rescue Harry Potter are safe. With some exceptions, they will be returned to their homes as soon as Harry recovers enough to give us his memory of the incident, and we have examined it to determine if anyone else was involved.

If I find that anyone else knew about this, or was involved in some way, I will be dealing with them very harshly. Madam Bones, I know what I said, and by and large I will stick to it. But as Sirius may have mentioned, some things are beyond the pale, and attacks on children cannot be dealt with adequately by our laws.

Please note, Madam Bones, that I have full confidence that you are ready, willing, and able, to uphold the law. Just that we have nothing in our laws that sufficiently expresses the level of outrage adequate for cases where someone tortures a child. Yes, we have Azkaban, but using the same punishment for burglaries as for murders, does not help convey the seriousness of this sort of crime.

Anyway, until they are freed, they are being kept in decent comfort, I have elves waiting on their daily needs, and I do not intend anyone among them who is innocent of this particular crime to suffer anything except a few hours of time lost.

Sirius refolded the paper and put it back in his pocket. Disregarding everyone's questions, he got off the podium. However, the Chief Witch had one question for him.

"What happened to Dolohov, Lord Black?"

"I'm afraid I do not quite know what happened, nor where he is now. He is certainly alive, otherwise I am sure the Phantom would have mentioned it to me. I honestly can't say I care. If I ever see him, I will make sure he never forgets what he did to a child."

1988-06-23 08:00 UTC, dungeons beneath 12, Grimmauld Place

In reality, Hobby did not need Harry's memories immediately. He had enough to do, making sure Dolohov did not die of the injuries from Hermione's accidental magic. He was definitely not going to take him to St Mungo's, so instead he had taken him to Penny and Nick's place last night, after making sure Harry and Hermione were OK. He spent some time helping Penny stabilise him, then - once he had been given the appropriate healing potions for all his injuries, including skelegrow, he went back to Malfoy Manor. Penny promised to call him once he was healed up enough and awake.

The next morning, while the Wizengamot session was going on, Hobby felt Penny calling him, and went to Nick and Penny's place. Dolohov was looking almost healthy - a testament to Penny's magical (truly!) skills in healing.

Hobby took him off to Grimmauld, and put him in a separate room. He got out a bottle of truth serum and forced it down Dolohov's throat.

He cut straight to the chase. "Who else knew you were going to kidnap Harry?"

"No one".

"Why did you do this?"

"We were losing, almost lost. The Phantom had broken our spirit, and I wanted to break his back." He had not realised he was talking to the Phantom.

That's pretty generic; almost any death-eater may have the same motivation, thought Hobby.

"Do you think any of your fellow death-eaters would get the same idea?"

"Yes".

"Would they be able to carry it out?"

"Some would".

"Who?"

"Malfoy, Nott, Rowle".

"What about Parkinson and Yaxley?"

"Parkinson is a wimp. Yaxley might do it, so him too."

Hobby thought for a minute, then asked, "do you know what your punishment is going to be?"

"No".

"Can you guess?"

"Yes".

"What do you think it will be?"

"You will kill me".

Not quite, thought Hobby. He turned him into a rat, put him in a cage, marked the cage properly, and left.

1988-06-23 13:00 UTC, Kithurst Close

When Hobby, as Hobby, arrived at Kithurst Close, he found that Harry had been awake for a few minutes. Hermione had been up for a while, and was still in her mother's arms, with her father sitting right next to them. A long arm lay protectively across and behind his wife's shoulders, extending to encompass his daughter's small form as well.

Harry himself did not lack for affection or attention - Sirius had him in a death grip, and seemed reluctant to let him go any time this century. Remus seemed to be debating whether he should do what Mr Granger was doing, and whether it would get misunderstood by his canine friend. Despite the seriousness of what happened before, Hobby almost laughed at the sight.

We need to find Sirius a girlfriend, and it has to be someone who will love Harry as much as he does, he thought. But that would be hard, and he really was not much of a matchmaker - he wouldn't know where to start! Anyway, time enough for that later.

"Harry", said Hobby. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine now, Hobby", said Harry.

"Good... Look I'm sorry to ask this but are either of you feeling up to describing what happened?"

Harry looked at Hermione. She nodded.

"OK, look there's a very easy way for you to tell us exactly what happened", said Hobby. He brought out a pensieve from a bag no one had noticed till now, and handed it to Remus.

"Remus, you know how to do this; help them with it, and make two copies. That's a copy-pensieve, so you can put the memories back when you're done". Saying which, he gave him four vials.

Remus pulled up a chair next to Harry and Sirius, and started explaining what this was, and what he would be doing. He included the three Grangers also when he did this. Once he was done, he asked Harry if he had any questions. Harry had none.

Remus turned to Hermione and said, "Hermione, how about you, any questions?"

Hermione stared at him. "Me? But I'm not a... a... a witch!"

"No honey, you are, apparently", said her mother. "They explained it all to us last night when you were brought home".

"What's more, you saved Harry when he was being tortured, with a massive bout of accidental magic!", said Sirius, with a warm smile at her.

Hermione looked stunned. She turned to Harry and asked, "did you know I was a witch?"

"Nope! Not a clue. First I'm hearing of it!" Then he smiled a great big smile, wriggled out of Sirius's grasp, and went across to Hermione, kneeling on the carpet to be level with her.

"You know what this means, don't you?"

It took her only a second to get where he was going. "We can still be classmates after we're eleven!", she laughed.

He did not realise how odd it looked, how worried the Grangers seemed to be, how gleeful Sirius was, and the thoughtful expression on Remus's face. He looked Hermione in the eyes, and said "I was so worried about this, that I was going to ask Sirius if I could continue in a normal school!"

"I knew that was what you were worrying about yesterday when you first explained about wizard schooling. I just didn't know what to say that would help", she said quietly. Then she grinned broadly, wriggled out of her mother's arms, put her hands around Harry and gave him a big hug.