Edited by the mighty pazed!

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Chapter 68

Keighvin ran his finger across the surface of the table that stood along the wall just inside the front door of the cottage, staring in wonder at the sheer amount of dust and grime accumulated over the last twelve odd years that now stained his finger and shook his head. "And I thought Harry would be angry about the state of things outside!" he said, with no small amount of disgust, as he turned toward his traveling companions.

Director Bones sighed. "I haven't been here in over five years myself, and I only saw the outside then… Not since I brought Suzie, after she borrowed one of the Harry Potter books from one of her friends. I wanted her to know the real story not the one that is popular, or the crap that is in those books, but the real story, even if we don't understand what happened that night."

Keighvin shook his head. "Well, him seeing the outside in a shambles, not to mention the giant hole, and the dedication to his parents covered in graffiti won't go over well… I'm glad he went to the church first, hopefully what he finds there will be better than this and he will be able to handle what he finds here."

Amelia shrugged. "I hope so as well… I'll admit, I too am disappointed with the state of things here." She stepped into the main room looking around absently. "I-I visited them here several times… once before they were even married… well, not them, James's father actually. It was just after I graduated Auror training, I had to deliver some paperwork from the DMLE one night. The war was still new then… James was just getting ready to start Seventh year, and Lily was visiting." She smiled softly. "I don't think they had been going out long, but you could already see the love they shared… especially when James looked at her…"

She broke off her thoughts, with a small sniff. "Anyway, they were all sitting around that very table," She gestured towards a beautiful burled oak table covered in dust, "laughing… I can still hear them… Just like I can still hear Harry laughing as he rode his toy broom around the house chasing the cat, as James and Sirius cheered him on and Lily tried to catch him… Suzie was fussing, wanting to get down off my lap and play with the kitty too… I had only had her about a month at the time…"

Keighvin smiled. "It was a house filled with love… you can still almost feel it, despite how it ended," he said, his voice sour at the last.

"I still don't understand how this happened," she said quietly, as she took another step into the house. Her eyes filled with tears as she looked around at the ruined furniture. "The wards on the house… They should have kept this from happening…"

Keighvin sighed again as he followed her. "This is mostly rot," he said as he pushed on what once had been a cushion from the couch, or at least he thought that the fabric matched. "Twelve years is a long time with this much moisture in the air, and the curtains open. Mold is going to be a problem on anything we find here."

Amelia drew her wand and began to make intricate patterns in the air, her sad voice finally speaking a few moments later. "The normal housekeeping wards must have been destroyed when the attack happened. The wards that are here now… They aren't as comprehensive as they should be… they stop the worst of things like rain, but any standing moisture isn't shed… I'm sorry, I'll find out who did this and-"

Keighvin knelt down and picked up the remains of a book that had fallen next to a chair. "Charles Dickens, David Copperfield. Looks like a first printing," he said quietly. He looked up. "This book is… was worth a small fortune, it's very rare," he said cutting her off. He looked up at her with sad eyes.

"There are only three explanations," he began, letting the book fall from his fingers back to the ground. "One is, whoever did the spell casting had some form of grudge against the Potters as a whole or Harry's parents and/or Harry personally, wanting to see every thing here rot away slowly over time. Possibly a Death Eater, one of the more extreme cases, or someone that felt slighted some way or another, or possibly owed them a debt of some form.

"Two, it was someone sent by the Ministry that was in a hurry, assumed the measures were temporary, or just didn't care," he said, rubbing his fingers free of grime on a handkerchief he had produced from a pocket as he stood.

Amelia nodded, so far both explanations had merit.

"Third, it was Dumbledore, and if he did it, it was done on purpose." She looked stunned at this accusation.

He held up a hand to keep her from speaking. "Think about it logically," he said as he slowly approached the one thing he knew Sirius wanted retrieved from here for Harry above all others, his mother's piano. "He is the one that pushed for the Wizengamot to seal the house as a historical monument, he was the one that sealed the Potter will, he was the one that placed him with the Dursleys, then refused to check on him for five years or more. Makes you wonder if he even wanted him to know anything about his family, as it is difficult to find anything out about what it meant to be a Potter, especially with the kind of drivel that we have found with his name plastered on it in the alley."

Keighvin began looking over the instrument with a careful eye. "He has been at the root of so many things over the years that have hurt people… more than you can possibly know," he said softly. "The blood on his hands…"

Keighvin shook his head. "It wasn't until years later, when he had run out of options, and the first cracks in his stories began to show, that he even considered telling someone the truth… hmmm the lamination is shot, I don't think the wood can be salvaged."

Amelia had made her way to the stairway while he looked at the piano; she was standing looking at the hole in the wall a floor above her when he stood. "Hopefully the frame is still intact…"

"Mmm…" she said, then continued quietly. "This is horrible… it was just left this way… I don't understand how we never saw it… When Suzie's parents, my brother and his wife were killed, we saved everything… even the papers Edgar had left out on his desk." She sighed. "This is yet another way we have failed them."

Keighvin shook his head. "I'll admit there is plenty of blame to go around, but some of it is understandable," he said as he started checking the stairs to see if they were safe enough to use to look around upstairs.

"You had just survived a nasty bit of fighting," he continued, "with an insurgent group of terrorists. Something you were ill equipped to deal with, given that many of their key members were, and in some cases still are, high ranking officials within the standing government. Add that to the wide spread corruption…" and he shrugged. "Everyone just wanted to put it behind them… especially those Death Eaters still in power, as some power is better than none. And Dumbledore..."

Her eyes grew wide. "Why would Dumbledore be included in that?"

Keighvin sighed again as he turned from the staircase. "Seriously?" he said incredulously. "Use your brain for a minute. Think, why would he want it over quickly, without much of a fuss?"

"T-to put it behind…" She watched as his brow furrowed in aggravation, so she paused, sinking into thought.

She ran through her memories, the conversations with Dumbledore, Keighvin and even Harry himself, as he went back to inspecting the staircase.

"He's hiding something…" She watched as Keighvin nodded. "But what?" she asked quietly.

He turned to face her again. "Some of it you already know, or at least suspect."

He eyed her even as he continued. "He accepts things as they are, and wants to keep them that way, anything to protect his 'Greater Good'… Or rather his plan for how things should be."

She looked confused, so he elaborated. "He has been trying to create a new 'leader of the light' for years… generations actually, someone he can pass the reins of the wizarding world to, even as it collapses around his ears. And he's failed more than just with Harry."

He let her think about that as he went back to inspecting the stairs.

"He failed before..." said a quiet voice behind him and he nodded. "He knew about… Voldemort?" she asked, her voice catching on the name.

Keighvin nodded again as he turned back to her. "He does. He's known much more about him than he has made public for years… including his real name, Tom Riddle."

He then told the stories of Gellert Grindlewald and Tom Riddle to an increasingly angry woman.

Harry felt numb as he made his way down the road from the small church and its quaint graveyard. His parents' graves were peaceful, and truth be told quite beautiful.

He had sat next to them at first not knowing how he felt, but at his mother's prompting began to tell them about his new life and family. The words came haltingly at first, then suddenly they began to pour out of him as if a dam had burst inside him.

In the end leaving him with a tear streaked face and feeling exhausted.

Afterwards they had walked into the small village of Godric's Hollow and eaten a meal in the small pub, and spoken with the minister, or vicar as he was called here.

They had told him he didn't need to visit the cottage today but he wanted this all done as soon as possible, and Sirius didn't know how long he could keep Fudge's toadies at bay even with Madam Bones's help. So today it was.

He stood just feet from the garden gate of the property and took a deep breath, trying to center himself and stepped forward.

Only for his progress to be stopped by the form of Madam Bones who stormed out of the cottage, an angry fire in her eyes. Seeing him at the gate she stumbled to a halt.

"Harry…" she breathed. "I-I'm so sorry… I-" She paused, took a deep breath and began again. "we should have NEVER listened to Dumbledore…" She glanced over her shoulder. "Let- Let me deal with this… I-I want… "

She took another deep breath. "You shouldn't…" Her shoulders slumped. "You don't want to see this the way it is… I'm sorry. We owed you and your family so much more than we could ever repay… and you don't deserve this… Please let me handle this… I'll make sure you get everything…" She took a deep breath, and blew it out saying something she never wanted to believe she would say. "I'll arrange for your parents, James and Lily, to be prepared to move as well if that is what you deside…"

Harry glanced between her and Keighvin standing in the doorway behind her, then to his parents, who were both watching closely.

"I-I need to see it," he said softly. "I need to see where… where it happened… Where I could have grown up… I need to see it."

She looked at him, with tears in her eyes. He knew she wanted him not to, but when her eyes met his she saw the determination in them, this was something he had to do. Slowly she nodded and stepped aside.

Saturday afternoon was usually used for free time by most of the students in the castle but today it found several girls from Hogwarts down in the Sandfield classrooms talking to one another.

"You can't be serious!" yelled a young blond girl, standing next to a larger version of herself.

"I assure you I am, Greengrass," Pansy said. "I have seen it with my own eyes! Not only do they command more wealth than any of the families, they do so on things many would consider little more than hobbies!" she said, waving her arms for emphasis.

"I saw teams of racers, dozens of them, spending more on one race than any family could make in a year! And they didn't even blink! The winner at both of those races took more home as his purse than the Ministry budget for a month! And these aren't even the owners' main businesses! Nor are they that large of a business in the non-magical world!"

A smirk grew over her face as she said the next thing. "And some of those companies have women in their upper echelon!"

Gasps came from around the room. "With the right education, at one of their Colleges, it is possible," she said with a grin.

Millicent asked the question on all of their minds. "And how do we get into one of these… Colleges?"

"By sitting something called A levels here in Britain. Something Sandfield is more than willing to help us do," she said with a small smile.